
GENERAL 

Of THE 

SALVATION 
ARMY 



William Booth, 



THE GENERAL 

OF THE 

SALVATION ARMY. 



BY 

COMMANDER BOOTH TUCKER. 



[COPYRIGHT.] 

PRICE, 10 CENTS. 



NEW YORK : 

THE SALVATION ARMY PRINTING AND PUBLISHING HOUSE, 
122 WEST FOURTEENTH STREET. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1898 
by Frederick de Lautour Booth-Tucker, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C. 



In erclx. 
n, of 0. Pub .IJb, 



INTRODUCTION. 



" Some men," it has been said, " are born great, others 
achieve greatness, while others have greatness thrust upon 
them." General Booth belongs to those who have, in the 
teeth of adverse circumstances, " achieved greatness." He 
needs no introduction ; he requires no apology. Others 
may have a greater reputation within the borders of their 
own nation. We know of none in modern days* whose 
name, while still living, has become to such a degree a 
household word in every nation as a universal benefactor 
of mankind. 

Indeed, no nation can justly claim him as its own. 
He is the universal property of all. Wherever the poor 
man toils to earn his daily bread, wherever the submerged 
masses of the world send forth their piteous wail of heart- 
ache on God's air, wherever the sins and miseries of 
humanity have reached the utmost limits of endurance, 
the giant stride of this modern Apostle of Hope and Faith 
and Hard Work looms on the horizon, leaving footprints 
of 'help and happiness behind. ~ 

Barriers that have heretofore seemed impervious to the 
advance alike of Science. of Philosophy and Statesmanship 
—fortresses of Vice and Crime, of Poverty and Despair, 
against which the combined forces of Christendom have 
waged an almost hopeless war— have yielded before the 
assaults of the host of men and women warriors, who 
have sprung to their feet at the bidding of this Prophet of 
the Poor to take part in his glorious Crusade, Amid the 
Egyptian darkness of thraldom and poverty which en- 
velopes the Working Classes of the world, there has flashed 
the figure of a God-inspired deliverer — of one who has 
not been ashamed to proclaim from every housetop his 
profound allegiance to the Bleeding Lamb and his 



iv 



INTRODUCTION. 



supreme confidence in the Gospel remedy for sin — and yet 
of one who has not ignored but ably bound up some of the 
gaping wounds of society, pouring in the oil and roine 
alike of human help and of divine consolation. 

Visit the Zulu kraal, the Red Indian tepee, or the 
Hindoo mud hut, and you will see hanging upon the 
smoke- grimed wall the picture of this Poor Man's Friend. 
In Japan, India* Java, Hawaii, the children learn to 
lisp his name. National antipathies are forgotten and 
the capitals of Europe vie with each other in doing honor 
to one whose mission is a war of love, of desperate effort 
to bridge the gulf between nation and nation, between 
rich and poor. 

Born in a whirlwind, cradled in a storm, the Salva 
Hon Army stands forth to-day the marvellous creation of 
this modern Alexander's genius. Its Macedonian phal- 
anx has turned — not to attack the forces of good, but those 
of evil, not to discourage a single effort for the welfare of 
mankind, but to make more possible their success— by 
flinging itself with locked shields and serried spears 
against the very ramparts of sin and woe. Its task is not 
complete It is scarcely more than begun. But an 
ample demonstration has been made as to the glorious 
possibilities within the reach of fire and faith. A fight- 
ing force has been created, the outworks have been cap- 
tured, the central citadels of misery and sin have been 
invested, retreat has been turned into advance, defence 
into vigorous assault, despair into hope, defeat into 
victory. 

The record of such a life cannot be properly written, 
as this has been, within the compass of a few score pages, 
nor amid the ceaseless interruption of a heavy campaign. 
The time and care which I would fain have bestowed 
upon it have not been at my disposal. I have been com- 
pelled, therefore, to hurriedly throw together such material 
as was at the moment within my reach. 

It was believed, however, that in view of our beloved 
leader's visit to the United States, the opportunity must 



INTRODUCTION. 



v 



not in any case be lost for placing before the public some 
particulars of a life so fraught with interest to all lovers 
of their fellow man. I might have entrusted the task to 
other hands, possessed of more talent and able to com- 
mand more leisure, but my love and devotion to the sub- 
ject of this memoir claimed for myself the privilege of 
introducing to the American public one who, for seven- 
teen years, has been my ideal of Christian Soldierhood, 
and who has opened for me, and tens of thousands more, 
spheres of usefulness and opportunity such as my boy- 
hood day dreams never reached. 

In the preparation, moreover, of the' 'Life of Catherine 
Booth" I had become familiar with all the earliest 
details of his home life and of Army history; so that, in 
condensing and re writing the bulk of the story, I could 
more freely make use of existing records. 

I hoped, also, that possibly my constant personal 
contact with our venerated leader, and my intimate 
knowledge of his HOME life as well as his characteristics 
as a warrior, — of his passionate yearnings over the needy 
multitudes, and his personal devotion to his God, might 
help me to impart a little extra warmth to the story, and 
better interpret his heart and life to those who, by force 
of circumstances, are prevented from learning about it 
themselves, save through the medium of others. 

It is scarcely necessary to add that General Booth 
would be the last man in the world to assume to himself 
any of the credit of the wonderful record of his half cen- 
tury of life work. It is only as a modern messenger and 
representative of his Master, and as a servant of human- 
ity, that he desires to stand before the people. As such, 
we believe that the profound interest and warm sym- 
pathy, with which he was welcomed during his previous 
visit, loill not only be equaled, but surpassed on the 
present occasion, that his efforts to uplift the 'masses will 
be eagerly seconded, and that the author of " Darkest Eng- 
land" will find among the slums and purlieux of 
"Darkest America' a fruitful field for fresh discoveries 



IXTROD UCTIOX. 



in connection with his far-reaching remedy so signally 
adapted to the direst needs and serving to staunch the 
heart-wounds of tens of thousands all over the world. 




New York, January 1898* 



General William Booth* 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY BAYS OF GENERAL BOOTH. 

"Grasp still firmer the standard ! Unfold still wider the 
battle flag! Press still closer on the ranks of the enemy, 
and mark your pathway still more distinctly with glorious 
trophies of Emmanuel's grace and with enduring monu- 
ments of Jesus' power! The trumpet has given the signal 
for the conflict! Your General assures you of success and 
a glorious reward! Your crown is already held out! Then 
why delay? Why doubt? Onward, onward, ONWARD!" 

Thus, at the age of twenty, in his earliest extant letter, 
wrote half prophetically, if unconsciously so, William 
Booth to one of his early friends. The entire letter flings 
its beacon light across the well nigh fifty years that have 
followed of service and of sacrifice. Penned without the 
least conception that those words would ever pass beyond 
the glance of the young companion in Christian toil to 
whom they were addressed, they furnish the clue to a 
grand and glorious career. 

''Christ forme," the letter continues. "Be that your 
motto! Be that your battle cry ! Be that your war note! 
Be chat your consolation! Be that your plea when asking 
mercy of God, your end when offering it to man, your hope 
when encircled by darkness, your triumph and victory 
when attacked and overcome by death! Christ for me! 
Tell it to men who are living and dying in sin! Tell it to 
Jesus that you have chosen Him to be your Saviour and 
your God. Tell it to devils, and bid them cease to harass, 
since you are determined to die for the truth!" 



8 



» 

GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



How the burning words ring out upon the breeze as one 
reads in another letter written about the same time: 

"Mercy! Have you heard the word? Have you felt its 
power? Mercy! Can you describe its hidden, unfathom- 
able meaning? Mercy! Let the sound be borne on every 
breeze! Mercy ! Shout it to the world around until there 
is not a sin- unpardoned, a pollution-spotted, a hell- marked 
spirit, unwashed, unsanctified! Until there is not a sign 
of curse in existence, not a sorrow unsoothed, not a tear 
unwiped away! Until the world is flooded with salvation, 
and all men are bathing in its life-giving streams!" 

William Booth's father was an able and energetic busi- 
ness man, who, after achieving a position of affluence, met 
with reverses and died leaving his widow with the rem 
nants of a broken fortune to struggle with adverse circum- 
stances. The mother, pure and tender as a breath from 
Heaven, was the guardian angel of her surviving boy. 
Mother and son idolized each other, and when the father 
fell the boy leaped bravely into the gap, obtained a 
position in a store and helped to become a breadwinner 
for the family. 

As a child William Booth was brought up in the 
Episcopalian Church, at a time when the subject of con 
version was seldom mentioned. At the age of fifteen he 
began to attend the services held at a Wesleyan chapel. 
The clear and simple preaching of the Gospel produced a 
profound impression upon him. He was soundly con- 
verted, joined the church and became one of its most active 
members. 

It was in the slummy purlieux of the city of Not- 
tingham that he gained his first experiences of Salva- 
tion Army warfare. Mounted on a chair or ashbarrel, he 
would harangue the open-air crowds that soon loved to 
gather where the boy-preacher's eloquent voice was to be 
heard Now a keen witicism would be flung at them, and 
as their faces broadened into a smile there would follow the 
deep home-thrust of earnest truth for which the other 
had been intended but to prepare the way. It was never 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



9 



difficult to get the listening crowd to follow to the cottage 
meeting, where many an uncouth, ill-kempt sinner would 
knoel weeping at the table, pouring out their hearts to 
God in prayer. 

With the early instinct of a leader, William Booth 
quickly gathered around him some of the brightest young 
men in the congregation. The cottages became too small 
to hold the crowds who pressed for admission. The young 
enthusiasts marched them singing through the thorough- 
fares and down the Goosegate to the chapel. But the 
tatterdermalion throng was eyed askance by the more 
respectable members, and William Booth and his minia- 
ture Army of Salvation, were confined to the backseats of 
the church Still they fought on, allowing nothing to 
damp their youthful enthusiasm. 

One of this desperate band of workers, William San- 
son!, burst a blood vessel in a prayer meeting. The leader 
determined to make the best of the occasion by arranging 
a funeral at which the example of the young hero, who 
had died at his post, should be made the means of salvation 
to others. 

Almost every branch of subsequent Salvation Army war- 
fare was unconsciously practised by William Booth during 
the five years of his membership at the Nottingham 
chapel. In spite of the fact that his business detained 
him till 8 o'clock at night, he would hurry from the 
store now to the open air, now to a prayer meeting, now 
to the bedside of the sick and dying. 

His Sundays would be spent in tramping to and from 
some distant village, where he had been appointed to 
preach. His homeward walk, often alone through the 
dark, muddy fields and lanes, would be enlivened by 
snatches of the prayer- meeting songs and choruses which 
had helped to bring sinners to the Cross ; and late into the 
night the voice of the young preacher might be heard in 
mingled prayer and praise. 4 'Don't sit up singing till 
12 o'clock after a hard day's work. Such things are 
not required, either by God or man!" was one of the first 



\ 



10 GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 

pieces of practical advice he received a few years later from 
her who was to be his life-partner in this work. 

The genius and enterprise that flashed forth in those 
early days were quickly recognized by his church. At the 
early age of seventeen, William Booth was appointed to 
be a local preacher, and two years later his pastor urged 
him to enter the ministry. His health was delicate, and 
before accepting the call, medical advice was sought. The 
doctor who examined him pronounced him totally unfit for 
such a career, prophesying that it would land him in the 
grave within twelve months. It was this consideration 
alone that held him back during the next four years from 
entering the ministry. But his private activities continued 
unabated, every leisure moment being devoted to the same 
character of services, though their scene was transferred 
from Nottingham to London. 

Here his preaching began to attract no little attention, 
and sometimes criticism. "Young man/' said one of his 
hearers, "there is too much of the shroud in your preach- 
hag." Others objected that it was not sufficiently argu- 
mentative. But the more spiritual and enthusiastic 
quickly rallied around him, and again he was pressed to 
devote his whole life to the ministry. 

Writing upon the subject to the same intimate friend 
and companion already referred to, he says: 

"Afterwards I had some conversation with one of our 
local preachers respecting the subject, with regard to 
which my heart is still burning — I mean the full work. He 
advises me by all means to offer myself next March, and 
leave it in the hands of God and the Church. What say 
you? You are my friend, the chosen of my companions, 
the man after my own heart. What say you? I want- to 
be a devoted, simple and sincere follower of the Bleeding 
Lamb. I do not desire the pastor's crust without having 
most distinctly received the Master's call. And yet my 
inmost spirit is panting for the delightful employment of 
telling from morn till eve, from eve to midnight, the glad 
tidings that mercy is free," 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



ii 



Hearing from his pastor that * 'preachers" were "not 
wanted" in London, or at least only those of the most 
"intellectual and cultured training," he even planned to 
tender his services as chaplain to some convict ship, with 
a view to working his way out to Australia, where, he had 
heard, it was easier to enter the ministry. "And then 
my mother's image flits across my mind," he adds touch - 
ingly. 

But the calls continued to become more frequent and • 
pressing, till on April 10, 1852, the twenty-third anniver- 
sary of his birthday, he finally severed his promising con- 
nection with business. A warm friend and admirer, who 
was instrumental in persuading him to take this step, 
insisted upon being responsible for his personal needs. 
"How much will you require?" asked the friend. "Twelve 
shillings (three dollars) a w r eek will keep me in bread and 
cheese," was the characteristic reply. But the friend in- 
sisted tha*". the amount should be not less than twenty 
shillings (five dollars)! And on this modest stipend Wil- 
liam Booth commenced to lay the foundations of a work 
that was to make its influence felt to the utmost limits of 
the world. 



CHAPTER II. 



GENERAL BOOTH AS AN EVANGELIST. 

American influences were largely responsible for shap- 
ing the next few years of William Booth's life. Soon after 
his conversion the fiery American evangelist Caughey, 
| visited Nottingham, His burning words fell like molten 
' lead upon the heart of the young man, who, fifty years 
later, when visiting America, knelt beside the aged patri 
arch to receive his dying blessing, after himself reaching 
the zenith of his fame as a world-wide apostle of the poor. 
The crowded churches and thousands of seekers for pardon 
and purity who had rewarded Caughey's brief ministry in 
England, inspired the ambition of William Booth to wit- 
ness similar outpourings of divine grace. 

Bending all his energies in this direction he was soon 
rewarded by results which surpassed his most sanguine 
expectations. In church after church the revival fiame 
burst forth. Crowded audiences faced the young preacher, 
no matter whither he might turn his steps. Such was the 
number of the penitents that flocked to the altar for 
prayer that it became necessary as a preliminary to each 
campaign to construct a fence, which would keep back the 
crowd and enable the seekers to be properly dealt with by 
experienced persons. The construction of these barriers 
before a single soul had sought salvation or a single sermon 
had been preached, would often cause wide-spread com- 
ment. Some doubted, others mocked, while even those 
who were most anxious for his success were afraid that his 
zeal had outstripped his discretion. But the result was 
invariably the same. Before the services had been in 
progress a week the largest churches were crowded, and 
hundreds of souls were seeking salvation. In not a few 
instances entire neighborhoods were revolutionized. 

12 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



At first, under the auspices of the Wesleyan Reform 
Movement, then under those of the Methodist New Con- 
nexion, and finally as an independent evangelist, accepting 
calls from churches regardless of denominational differ- 
ences, the next tnirteen years of William Booth's ministry, 
from 1852 to 1865, were devoted to stirring revival cam- 
paigns of the most successful and striking character. It is 
quite possible that his entire life might have been conse- 
crated to this class of effort but for two important consid 
eratlons, which had continually forced themselves during 
this period upon his attention. 

It liad been only too apparent to his observant eye that 
the crowds who flocked to his ministry consisted almost 
entirely of churchgoers and professing Christians. The 
ninety per cent, of the working classes who were calculated 
at that time to attend no place of worship, whose cathe- 
dral was the saloon, whose sacrament a drunken bout, 
whose Bible the penny dreadful, would not listen to "the 
voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely." They 
had an inherent hatred against religion in its ordinary 
forms. They classed it all as canting hypocrisy. If the 
only way to Heaven lay across the threshold of a church, 
they did not scruple to declare that they would sooner go 
to Hell. 

Again and again did the eye of the great evangelist 
range restlessly over his congregation to see if any of those 
classes were represented, and to mark whether the tidal 
wave of revival had reached those rock- bound limits. 
Again and again his heart sank with disappointment as he 
noted that the overwhelming majority of his hearers 
belonged to the regular churchgoing crowd. Again and 
again the conviction would force itself upon him that his 
mission was to the great no-man's land of the godless, 
churchless. hopeless and often homeless masses. 

Another difficulty which continually confronted him 
was the organizing of his converts into bands of ardent 
workers, who would go forth animated by the same spirit 
as himself to seek the salvation of others. 



14 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



He could not but note how readily his converts sank 
into the ordinary routine of church life, and wonderful 
as had been the change, they were far from coming up to 
the high ideal of Christian warfare which he had set 
before himself. 

But his intense realization of the value of organized 
effort prevented him for many years from contemplating 
the formation of an organization of his own, And even 
after he had actually commenced this undertaking so 
conscious was he of its difficulty, and so unwilling to create 
what might appear to be another sect, that it was his con- 
tinual day dream that he might be allowed to tack.on his 
movement to some great denominational body, as a boat 
is roped to a ship. More than once conferences were 
held with the leading members of various churches, more 
especially with the Episcopal and Congregational, with a 
view to forming some such union. And in the earliest days 
of the Salvation Army, bonds of sympathy were thus 
established, which instead of binding it to any one church, 
have served to link it to all with a unity which perhaps 
is hardly to be found between any other Christian organ- 
izations. 

"Even if you are attacked, do not answer back, but go 
on with your work and justify your existence by your 
success," was one of the earliest cardinal principles laid 
down by General Booth for the guidance of his officers. 
"However much you may differ from other Christians, do 
not attack either their methods or their creeds To their 
own Master they stand or fall. Attend to your own business, 
and let them attend to theirs. Turn all your guns upon 
the enemies of Christ, not upon His friends." Such were 
some of the first maxims of warfare that he laid down, and 
with which he sought to inspire his followers. 



CHAPTER III. 

CATHERINE BOOTH, THE MOTHER OF THE SALVATION 
ARMY. 

Amongst the first and most appreciative of the London 
listeners to William Booth was a young lady whose gifts 
and graces had already marked her out as one of the 
leading spirits in her church. 4 'That and better will do," 
was her terse and significant verdict on one of the first 
.sermons she heard. "Better than the best that had ever 
gone before," became afterwards one of the root principles 
which was to contribute very largely to the success of the 
Salvation Army. 

Catherine Mumford was born on the 17th January, 1829, 
in the town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England, but her 
parents removed when she was quite a child to London, 
and it was amid the roar and rattle of its crowded life that 
she received her training. Not that she played a part in 
its activities, for as an only daughter she was brought up 
in the almost puritanical seclusion of a home in which 
" her pious mother but rarely permitted her the society of 
other children, lest their habits of disobedience and world- 
liness should exercise a prejudicial influence upon her soul. 
But such a mother was a companion, a benediction and a 
training in herself. Beneath the pure light of her example 
this delicate blossom unfolded it3 tender petals and thrust 
deep into the subsoil its roots. 

Through the years of girlhood, which were marked by 
severe suffering, Catherine's mother and her much loved 
books were almost her sole companions. She was early 
interested in the cause of temperance, and her first public 
writings were penned in its behalf, the manuscript being 
copied by some friend before being sent to the magazine 

15 



16 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



to which she was a contributor, in order that its girlish 
origin might not be betrayed. 

At her father's table the advocates of temperance would 
often gather and in their discussions Catherine would 
take an active part, speaking with an earnestness and 
power which foreshadowed her subsequent devotion to the 
cause and delighted every guest. 

It was not till the age of sixteen that Catherine enjoyed 
the definite experience of salvation. Although conscious 
of having consecrated herself from her earliest childhood 
to the service of Grod, she had never definitely stepped 
out upon the promises and accepted the forgiveness of her 
sins. After passing through several weeks of deep spirit- 
ual agony, one early morning the light burst in upon 
her soul as her eyes fell upon the long familiar words of 
the hymn: 

My Grod I am Thine, 
What a comfort divine, 

What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine! 

"Scores of times I had read and sung these words," she 
writes, in recounting her experience, "but now they came 
home to my inmost soul with a force and illumination they 
had never before possessed. It was as impossible for me 
to doubt as it had before been for me to exercise faith. 
Previously not all the promises in the Bible could 
induce me to believe, but now all the devils in Hell 
could not persuade me to doubt. I no longer hoped that 
I was saved, I was certain of it. The assurance of my sal- 
vation seemed to flood and fill my soul. I jumped out of 
bed, and, without waiting to dress, ran into my mother's 
room and told her what had happened. 

"For the next six months I was so happy that I felt as 
if I were walking on air. I used to tremble and even long 
to die lest I should backslide, or lose the consciousness of 
Grod's smile and favor." 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



17 



So stern had been her sense of conscientiousness that 
up to this -moment she had not allowed herself to be 
entered as a member of the church whose services she 
attended. But from this time forward her name was placed 
upon the roll and she became an active worker, with a 
Sabbath class of girls, most of whom were soundly con- 
verted through her efforts. It was in this sphere that she 
perfected herself in the plain and powerful personal deal, 
ing with individual consciences for which she subse- 
quently became so famous. 

It was at the home of a mutual friend that William 
Booth and Catherine Mumford made each other's acquain- 
tance. The chief event of the evening- proved to be the 
recitation of a popular American temperance poem 
entitled "The Grogseller's Dream." The host had heard 
the young preacher repeat it on a previous occasion, and 
nothing would satisfy him until it had been recited again. 
An awkward pause followed, since most of the guests were 
non-abstainers. Miss Mumford was in her element, and 
led off in an animated debate, with the result that water 
was the principal beverage on that occasion. 

The mutual respect and admiration that each felt for 
the other's talent and devotion soon ripened into love. 
The courtship extended over a period of three years. The 
letters which were penned to each other during this period 
were of such a practical as well as tender character that 
one or two extracts will not be out of place. 

"The thought of walking through life perfectly united, 
together enjoying its sunshine and battling with its storms, 
by softest sympathy sharing every smile and every tear, 
and with thorough unanimity performing ail its momen- 
tous duties, is to me exquisite happiness; the highest 
earthly bliss I clesire. And who can estimate the glory to 
God and the benefit to man accruing from a life spent 
in such harmonious effort to do His will. Such unions, 
alas! are so rare, that we seldom see an exemplification of 
the divine idea of marriage. 



18 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



"Satisfied that in our souls there flows a deep under- 
current of pure affection, we will seek grace to bear with 
the bubbles which may rise on the surface, or wisdom to 
burst them so as to increase the depth and accelerate the 
onward flow of the pure stream of love, till it reaches the 
river which proceeds out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb and mingles in glorious harmony with the love of 
Heaven !" 

In a letter to Miss Mumford William Booth describes 
the reception with which he had met in one of the places 
in which he had previously labored for some weeks with 
remarkable success : 

"My reception has been exceedingly pleasing. Even the 
children laugh and dance and sing at my coming, and eyes 
sparkle and tongues falter in uttering my welcome. Yester- 
day I had very hard work. Enthusiasm ran very high. 
Feeling overpowering, and yet, not the crash we ex- 
pected. My prospects for usefulness seem to be unbounded. 
But God knows best and where He wants me there He 
can send tne. The people love me to distraction and are 
ready to tear me to pieces to have me at their homes. A 
large party was invited to meet me." 

Two days later he adds: 

"Yesterday I preached to crowded congregations, and 
we had a crashing prayer meeting. Some splendid cases. 
I am more than attached to the people. They are 
thoroughgoing folks. Just my sort. I love them dearly, 
and shall stand by them and help them when I can." 

The same letters refer to the use he was making of out- 
lines of sermons which Miss Mumford had been preparing 
for hiua. 

"I have just taken hold of that sketch you sent me 
on 'Be not deceived,' and am about to make a full sermon 
on it. I like it much; it is admirable. I want you to 
write some short articles for our magazine. Begin one and 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



19 



get it done by the time I come up. It will do you a world 
of good. I am sure you can do it. I will look over them 
and send them to the editor. I want a sermon on the 
flood, one on Jonah and one on the Judgment. Send me 
some bare thoughts; some clear, startling outlines. No- 
thing moves people like the terrific. They must have Hell- 
fire flashed bfoie their eyes, or they will not move. Last 
night I preached a sermon on Christ weeping over sinners, 
and only one came forward, although several confessed to 
much holy feeling and influence. When I preached 
about the barvest and the wicked being: turned away num- 
bers came. We must have that kind of truth which will 
move sinners." 

To these letters Miss Mumford replies as follows: 

"Bless you ! Bless you ! Your note has like joy's seraphic 
fingers, touched the tenderest chords in my heart, and 
what I write is but like the trembling echoes of a distant 
harp. If you were here I would pour out the full strain 
into your bosom and press you to my heart. God is too 
good. I feel happier than I have done for months. You 
will think me extravagant Well, bless God, He made me 
so Yes, we shall, I believe it, be very happy. 'Do I 
remember?' Yes, I remember all! All that has bound us 
together. All the bright and happy as well as the clouded 
and sorrowful of our fellowship. Nothing relating to you 
can time or place erase from my memory. Your words 
your looks, your actions, even the most trivial and inci- 
dental, come up before me as fresh as life. If I meet a 
child called William I am more interested in him than any 
other. Bless you! Keep your spirits up, and hope much 
for the future. God lives and loves us, and we shall be 
one in Him, loving each other as Christ has loved us. 

'Thus by communion our delight shall grow, 

Thus streams of mingled bliss swell higher as they flow, 

Thus angels mix their flames and more divinely glow.' " 



20 



GEXERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



The wedding was quietly and unostentatiously cele- 
brated on the 16th June, 1855, and from that moment not 
an onward step was taken in which Catherine Booth was 
not fully associated with her husband 

It was not, however, till five years later, at Gateshead, 
that Mrs. Booth commenced the public ministry which 
was blessed to the salvation of so many souls, and which 
opened wide the door of opportunity for so many thou- 
sands of women warriors who were encouraged by her 
example to follow in her footsteps, earning for her the 
affectionate title of "the Mother of the Salvation Army." 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE CHRISTIAN MISSION. 

An old tent in a disused Quaker burial ground consti- 
tuted the birth place of the Salvation Army It was amid 
the worse than heathen pandemonium of blasphemy and 
ribaldry for which the East End of London is so notorious, 
close to the subsequent scenes of Jack the Ripper's ghastly 
performances, that the movement was born and cradled. 

As in the days of old the Saviour of the world preferred 
to give birth to His designs of mercy amid the rough, 
manger-like surroundings of this East End Bethlehem 
rather than in the wealthy and refined West End Jerusalem 
that was close at hand. The groans of poverty and the 
tears of misery have ever been more attractive to the 
divine heart than the sweetest minstrelsy or most gorgeous 
pageantry of wealth. Jesus Christ left the matchless 
music and unalloyed pleasures of Heaven, not to exchange 
them for those of earth, but to seek and to save that which 
was lost, so lost that they could not fail to recognize the 
danger of their position, so miserable that they possessed 
no make-believe enjoyments to take the place of those He 
offered them. 

Among the vagabonds and outcasts who swarm the 
purlieux of East London General Booth had found at 
length the very lowest level of the social strata, and had un- 
consciously driven his pickaxe into the granite block which 
was to form the basis of the Salvation Army New Jeru- 
salem. In those subterranean caverns he discovered the 
"all manner of precious stones" with which the foundations 
were to be garnished, and amidst the tangled mass of 
ocean- covered weeds and rocks he explored the oyster beds 
that were to yield material for the "pearly gates." 

From his boyhood days in Nottingham, when he stood 

21 



■22 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



and cheered the Chartist orator Fergus O'Connor, he had 
always loved and sympathized with the poor. The sights 
of destitution and misery he then witnessed had burnt 
themselves in upon his soul. Since then, it is true, he had 
climbed for a time the ministerial ladder, but it had only 
been in the hopes of dragging the people up with him, and 
when he found that this was impracticable he descended, 
round after round, till at length his feet could fairly feel 
the ground, and the lowest, neediest masses of humanity 
swayed and surged around him. And now he realized that 
he was in his natural element. 

The shrewd East Enders appreciated his keen sallies of 
wit, and respected his evident zeal and devotion The utter 
absence of anything in the shape of cant or put on, the 
refreshing simplicity and total freedom from religious 
veneer, and the arm linking equality with which they were 
treated, made them accept this apostle of the workingman. 
and that at a time when ninety per cent, of this very 
class had given up all pretence of religion and never 
darkened the doorway of a place of worship from year's 
end to year's end! 

After nine weeks of meetings the tent was blown down, 
and then the meetings were carried on, first in a low danc- 
ing saloon, and then in an old wool warehouse : and later 
on in music halls and theatres. Both the open-air and 
indoor meetings were frequently upset by the rough audi 
ences The General thus graphically describes some of his 
early experiences in the dancing saloon and wool ware- 
house: 

" The people danced in it until the small hours of the 
Sunday morning, and then the converts carried in the 
seats, which had, fortunately not been destroyed with the 
tent. It was a long, narrow room, holding about 600 
people. The proprietor combined the two professions of 
dancing master and photographer, the latter being speci- 
ally pushed on Sundays. In the front room, through which 
all the congregation had to pass from the open street, sat 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



28 



the mistress coloring photographs, whilst someone at the 
door touted for business. The photography was done at 
the top of the house, and customers had to pass on their 
way up by a sort of parlor that was open to our hall. It 
was a regular thing for them to pause and listen to the 
message of salvation as they went upstairs on their Sab- 
bath breaking business. 

4 4 We had wonderful meetings in that room, and in con- 
nection with it I put in many a hard Sunday's work, regu- 
larly giving three, and sometimes four open air addresses, 
leading three processions and conducting three indoor 
meetings. The bulk of the speaking in all of these 
services fell on me. But the power and happiness 
of the work carried me along, and in that room the 
foundation was really laid for all that has since come to 
pass. 

"For week nights we secured an old wool warehouse in 
one of the lowest parts of Bethnal Green. Unfortunately 
the windows opened on to the street. When crowded, 
which was ordinarily the case, it became oppressively hot, 
especially in summer. If we opened the windows the boys 
threw stones and mud and fireworks through, and fired 
trains of gunpowder laid from the door inside. But our 
people got used to this, shouting 'Hallelujah!' when the 
crackers exploded and the powder flashed. Doubtless a 
good many were frightened away. Still, many a poor, 
dark soul found Jesus there, becoming a brave soldier 
of the Cross afterwards, It was an admirable training 
ground for the development of the Salvation Army 
spirit." 

And now invitations from the provinces began to mul 
tipiy in number, and to become more and more urgent in 
their character. Members of the trained band of workers 
when leaving London carried with them the same fiery 
spirit of enthusiasm, and commenced meetings similar to 
those in which they had taken part in London, correspond 
ing regularly with Mr. and Mrs. Booth, and asking to be 



24 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



recognized as being connected with the much-loved Chris- 
tian Mission. 

One of the first of these calls came from Edinburgh. 

The prospect of such a union was hailed with satisfac- 
tion by the members of the Mission, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Booth resolved to go in person to conduct the "marriage 
ceremony." It was their first visit to Scotland, and it was 
with some degree of wonderment and trepidation that they 
looked to the result. They had been told that the Scotch 
were stiff, hard headed and difficult to be moved, and 
would require a great deal of time and consideration be 
fore they would accept methods and teachings so different 
to those to which they had from their youth been ac- 
customed But the result of the first meetings soon dis- 
sipated the last doubt as to the advisability of the step, and 
this notwithstanding the unlikely character of the hall in 
which they were conducted. 

Situated in one of the lowest slums, it was a dull, dingy, 
dirty looking loft, which had served at one time as a 
chapel, with a pulpit at the end, a gallery around three 
sides, and accommodating some five hundred people. 
Nevertheless, it was crowded at the first services, and the 
power of God was wonderfully manifested. 

The sympathetic feeling of that first Scotch audience 
was remarkable. The spirit of conviction worked irresist 
ibly in their hearts. The people fell in every part of the 
building. In the pews, in the gallery, round the pulpit, 
in the dingy little vestry with its break-neck approach, 
there vvere men and women sobbing and crying aloud for 
salvation. 

But the anxiety of the General to create a solid and 
lasting work made him respond but sparingly to these 
appeals. The first thirteen years of the existence of the 
Salvation Army as the Christian Mission was largely 
directed to the raising up and training of a thoroughly 
qualified band of workers, and with a view to this the 
efforts of General Booth were concentrated on London 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



and its immediate vicinity. As for a world wide sphere, 
the idea had not so much as formulated itself in his mind, 
although at an early date in the Army's history the cur- 
rent of events began to point in that direction. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE SALTATION ARMY. 

Picture to yourself a little office overlooking the main 
thoroughfare which intersects East London. Outside a 
seething mass of working-class humanity, with a decided 
preponderance of the pauper element, hurry along in 
opposite directions, diving into the myriad saloons, which 
seem to literally elbow one another for room along each 
side of the roadway. Not one among that crowd is con- 
scious of the fact that within that little room is being 
enacted a scene which is destined to become historic. 

At the table sit two secretaries, pen in hand, with paper 
spread before them, drafting the annual report of the 
work, while pacing the room, rapidly dictating sentence 
after sentence, is the tall, black- bearded, eagle-eyed leader 
of the movement, which was so soon destined to assume 
world wide proportions. 

"The Christian Mission is a Volunteer Army," wrote the 
secretary. Pausing for a moment in his restless walk, as a 
flash of inspiration swept across his heart, and leaning 
over the secretary's shoulder, General Booth put his pen 
through the word "volunteer" and wrote above it the 
word "Salvation." "The Christian Mission is a Salvation 
Army," ran the corrected sentence, which pealed forth the 
clarion call of religious and moral reformation to the work- 
ing men and women of the world. 

To William Bramwell Booth and George Scott Railton, 
the only two who were privileged to be with the General 
at this, the formal christening of the Salvation Army, the 
new name appeared nothing short of a revelation. During 
the next few months the work was known successively as 
"The Christian Mission" or "The Salvation Army; then 
as "The Salvation Army" or "The Christian Mission," and 

2e 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



finally as "The Salvation Army" pure and simple. A few 
of the older members feared that the change boded no 
good, but their scruples quickly disappeared as they 
witnessed the far-reaching advances that now followed in 
ci(uick succession. The old committee system was replaced 
by councils of war, regulations based on those drawn up 
for military and naval forces were soon afterwards issued, 
a flag, uniforms, titles and brass bands were subsequently 
embodied as part and parcel of the system. 

The gradual development of the army idea may be illus- 
trated by the introduction of the various titles. 

The title of "Captain" was in the first instance intended 
to be nautical rather than military, and to catch the eye of 
the Whitby fishermen. Some time previously the conference 
had passed a resolution prohibiting the evangelists from 
using the title of "Reverend." But plain "Mr." was 
equally inconvenient, and unsuited for the masses. "Cap- 
tain" was not only scriptural but popular, being com- 
monly applied to the skippers of the coasting craft and to 
the leaders in mines and other inland occupations.' Hence 
the use of the term soon spread, and quickly superseded 
the obnoxious "Mr." and "Mrs." and "Miss" which had 
hitherto been in use. 

The subsequent addition of other military titles was a 
matter of necessity. It became essential to define the 
position of the assistant evangelist, and what more conve- 
. nient term could be found than that of Lieutenant? Elders 
and class leaders were no more, but some substitute was 
necessary. Sergeants and sergeant-majors just met the 
difficulty. The rapid increase of the work made it advis- 
able to group the stations into districts, under the charge 
of the most experienced evangelists. A distinguishing title 
became again a necessity. The clerical catalogue had 
been abandoned as unsuitable. Hence it appeared advis- 
able once more to have recourse to military phraseology, 
and the Major and Colonel were accordingly introduced. 

Mr. Booth had always been known as the General 
Superintendent of the Mission. What more natural than 



2$ 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH, 



that the latter portion of the title should be dropped, and 
that he should be announced by Captain Cadman as the 
General of the Hallelujah Army? It is a mistake to sup 
pose that Mr. Booth called himself General. The name 
was forced upon him by others in exactly the same way 
that Christians were first so called at Antioch. For many 
years he continued to be known as the Rev. William 
Booth, and it was only by degrees that he accustomed 
himself to the new title, though as far back as 1872, in 
writing to him, Mr. Rail ton was accustomed to address 
him as "My dear General," and signed himself as his 
"Lieutenant." 

The adoption of military terms soon led to further 
important advances. The stations received the name of 
"Corps," and in 1878 the first flag was presented. The 
ceremonial soon became both popular and useful, attracting 
large crowds by its novelty. The colors were designed by 
the General and were intended to be emblematic of the 
great end in view. The blue border typified holiness, 
while the scarlet ground was a perpetual reminder of the 
central lesson of Christianity — salvation through the 
blood of Jesus A yellow star in the centre betokened the 
fiery baptism of the Holy Ghost. Equally striking was 
the motto, "Blood and Fire," inscribed across the star, 
signifying in a word the two great essential doctrines of 
the Mission -the blood ot Jesus and the fire of the Holy 
Ghost. 

It may be naturally asked, why could not the spirit of 
the military system have been borrowed and its outward 
paraphernalia left behind? For exactly the same reason 
that the commander in chief of our national forces would 
decline to dispense with them. It would be easy to find a 
thousand reasons whereby to defend the use of titles and 
uniforms in actual warfare. Let anyone attempt to 
organize a fighting force in which such usages should be 
abolished, and he would at once find himself confronted 
with a problem to which there could only be two solu- 
tions possible: either he must allow his followers to become 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



29 



an undisciplined mob, each member of which did what was 
pleasing in his own eyes, or he must adopt some sort of 
. terminology and visible emblems of authority such as could 
be understood by the rank and file. If he objected to the 
old system his only alternative would be to invent a 
new one. 

Now this was exactly what had happened in the history 
of Christianity. Its rapid conquests in the early ages had 
made it necessary to organize its converts, and it had done 
so. True, the terms which it adopted were borrowed 
rather from the vocabulary of everyday life than from the 
military code. But for the latter there was then no pres- 
sing necessity. Bishops, ministers, deacons and elders 
were the plebeian but expressive epithets which it largely 
substituted for the priestly titles made use of in the Mosaic 
economy. Early Christianity was in a profound sense a 
revulsion of feeling from every form of secularism on the 
one hand and from elaborate ceremonialism on the other. 
But its leaders saw clearly that some sort of nomenclature 
was necessary. Some titles they invented for themselves — 
others were forced upon them. Their followers were called 
Christians; they were gathered into a church (ekklesia — 
the called out) ; those who were placed in necessary posi- 
tions of authority were termed overseers, having the over- 
sight of the souls of others, whose ministers, rather than 
masters they were to consider themselves — the name 
reminding them of the deed. Admirably chosen were 
these titles, and it is difficult to overestimate how greatly 
they facilitated the rapid spread of Christianity. 

But when General Booth faced the same problem 
eighteen centuries had elapsed. The titles had lost their 
original meaning, and with it much of their first force and 
nearly all of their early attraction. The garb of a Galilean 
fisherman or the toga of an old Roman had no longer any 
fascination for the lower ranks of society whom Mr Booth 
believed it was his special mission to evangelize. He had 
tried the terms commonly used by other religious societies 
pf his day and had found them totally unsuited to express 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



either his aims or his ideas. He had evaded the ques- 
tion as long as possible, and postponed decision till 
the time for further postponement had evidently passed 
away. Indeed, he had himself shrunk from the course 
which Providence and recent events had forced upon him. 

In the question of uniform Mrs. Booth took a special 
interest. Herself careful to an extreme to dress with 
neatness and modesty, some of her most powerful ana- 
themas had been directed from time to time against the 
fashions of the day. 

Even within the borders of the Mission the evil had 
crept, despite the most strenuous efforts to guard against 
it. Left to their own discretion some of the members of 
the Mission, and even some of the wives of the evangelists, 
had dressed in a manner which in some degree resembled 
the fashions of the world. Others, in their anxiety to 
avoid this evil, and naturally destitute of taste, had adopted 
costumes that were unsuitable and even ridiculous. 

Mrs. Booth set herself to work to devise for the women 
something which would be at once plain, distinctive and 
attractive Shutting herself up in a room with her 
daughter and surrounded by a heap of bonnets of various 
sorts and sizes, she endeavored to discover what would 
be adapted to both. Some suited one, some suited the 
other, but the now famous "Hallelujah bonnet" was at 
length hit upon and pronounced equally suitable to all. 
Others who were consulted on the subject confirmed this 
opinion, and thus was settled the character of "the helmet 
of salvation" which was to be worn by the women warriors 
of the Salvation Army. 

Not that it was intended to force it or any other portion 
of the uniform upon the world, irrespective of the national 
customs which might elsewhere prevail. When the Salva- 
tion Army invaded the East the hallelujah bonnet was 
readily discarded for the graceful Oriental veil, but a color 
was adopted which distinguished its followers as effectually 
from all around them as did the European bonnet or the 
ash-marked forehead of the heathen devotee. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



31 



Nor was it intended that the uniform shonld be unal- 
terable, as in the case of monks and nuns Should it at 
any time cease to be in harmony with the popular dress 
the fullest liberty has been retained to make such altera- 
tions as shall keep the Army in touch with the masses. 
There is no idea of finality in the present choice. Nor has 
there been thought to be any virtue in disfigurement, the 
one object being to combine simplicity with the testimony 
of separation from the world. 

In railway or street car it is a perpetual reminder 
to the careless and the ungodly, forcing them to think of 
the eternity to which they are hurrying and which they 
would fain banish from their minds. The very criticisms 
to which it may give rise often pave the way to close per- 
sonal dealing upon spiritual themes, and it is seldom that 
the Salvationist allows his assailant to depart without 
receiving some home-thrusts which, lingering in the heart 
long after the interview has terminated* have not infre- 
quently resulted in tears of penitence. 



CHAPTER VI. 



STORMY DAYS. 

The Salvation Army had now fairly entered the public 
arena, and it was not long before it became "the observed 
of all observers." The newspapers, those modern Athe- 
nians who spend "their time in nothing else but either to 
tell or to hear some new thing," spied the infant prodigy, 
and their columns soon teemed with comments, which, 
could they be collected, would require the lifetime of a 
Methuselah to read through, and would represent as verit- 
able a Babel of contradictions as were ever written upon 
any subject in so brief a space of time. 

Somehow, everybody felt qualified to pass an opinion 
upon the Salvation Army, from the little whipper-snapper 
who shouted "There goes Jesus!" as the bonneted sisters 
passed down the street, to the almost deified editor who 
sent forth his oracular utterances day by day to his 
votaries all over the world, and received from them the 
coppery tributes of their adoration. If diatribes, tirades 
and philippics could have annihilated the Salvation Army 
it would surely have perished long ago. Its first ap- 
pearance was the signal for a storm of abuse and ridicule 
which for violence and persistence has probably seldom 
been equaled in the world. Like David it might truly 
say, "The ploughers ploughed upon my back; they made 
long their furrows " "Strong bulls of Bashan" beset it 
around, gaping upon it "with their mouths as a ravening 
and a roaring lion." 

Anybody and everybody felt they must have a fling. It 
was quite safe to do so. They knew they would not be hit 
back. Here were people who when struck on one cheek 
were actually willing to turn the other to the smiter also, 
and who when robbed by a brutal mob of their coat were 

32 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



willing to offer to an unsympathizing bench the cloak of 
their liberty and rights as citizens. It was "sport" to crush 
the fly, because it was not a wasp, and could not sting! 
The "noble field" had caught sight of the religious stage 
and was soon in full chase. The journalist blew the horn, 
and great was the company of hunters and huntresses, and 
countless the packs of ready hounds that joined in the 
pursuit. Who was not there? Every shade of society had 
its representative, 

Well was it that Providence had placed at its helm two 
hearts unflinching, two wills unwavering, who clung to 
their post with the desperate tenacity of a faith which 
increased as storm after storm was w r eathered. Thus, wave 
after wave that threatened to engulf the vessel but carried 
it more swiftly coward its destination, compelling the very 
"wrath of man to praise" its Divine Controller. 

For the time being, however, all seemed with one con- 
sent to make common cause in levelling a lance at the 
obnoxious intruder upon the religious quietude of the 
world. Earls, countesses, justices, mayors, aldermen, pro- 
fessors, literati, scientists, sermonists, novelists, cartoonists, 
satirists, reporters, journalists, showered upon its devoted 
head anathemas sufficient to have relegated it summarily 
to a purgatorial limbo from which it should never have 
returned. Remarks cynical, whimsical, hypocritical, non- 
sensical, inquisitorial, dictatorial, dogmatical, and gener- 
ally speaking, wiseacreical, were belched forth upon it like 
showers of bullets from a mitrailleuse. 

Lilliputian nobodies from the land of pigmy dom strutted 
out, stretching themselves to the very utmost limits of 
their insignificance and aiming their poisoned shafts of 
envy and calumny at those who had dared to overstep 
their mental and spiritual invisibility. Intellectual Go- 
liaths, whose ipse dixit was wafted through the world on 
journalistic wings, stalked forth with ponderous shield and 
weighty spear, to throw down the gauntlet to this "Army 
of the living God" which had dared to raise the standard 
of revolt against the heathenish Philistinism of modern 
2 



34 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Christianity, Those who knew least bragged loudest, 
and those who were the most shortsighted prophesied with 
the utmost confidence. 

A coroneted religious luminary in England's sky dis 
covered in the Salvation Army the magic number of the 
Beast of Revelation, though in what respects the one 
resembled the other any more than he did himself would 
be difficult indeed to discover. No canon of interpretation 
was given. None was asked. It was enough to brand the 
object with another's misdeeds, and gibbet it, not for 
what it had been or done, but for what it might some day 
become. 

"Jesuitry," cried another self constituted"defender of the 
faith" to those who did not even know what Jesuitry meant. 
But how could one judgo who had never been to a meeting 
in her life, and who closed her door upon those who would 
have sought her out to explain what she might have mis- 
understood, or to learn from her the higher altitudes upon 
which she would have had them construct their morality? 
But this titled upholder of orthodox Protestantism, this 
daughter of freedom-boasting Switzerland, could incite 
maddened mobs and jealous priests and unfriendly govern- 
ments to tear to pieces, to shoot, imprison, stab, stone, 
and shed the blood of those with whom she would not even 
pray! Had a Chinese mandarin or Mahommedan dervish 
done the same Great Britain would probably have declared 
war, and outraged Christendom have united to demand 
an apology. 

Others of the critics were of a less rabid character. The 
Salvation Army they loftily pronounced to be a "rope of 
sand." It did not possess in their estimation the elements 
of durability. It svould soon die a natural death. It had 
long aero attained the zenith of its success. And now it - 
was on the wane. It was a notorious fact that it was not 
what it had been, nor could it ever be so again. But, 
alas for their prophetic spirits! The papery mausoleum 
which they had prepared with infinite trouble to receive 
its last remains continued empty. The swan-like requiems 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH, 



35 



were left unsung. The Salvation Army was a long time 
waning, and never reached the point at which it could be 
correctly said to be "quite dead." 

But it would be vain to attempt to exhaust the endless 
stream of idle tales and groundless slanders which have 
more or less flowed on from that hour forward. "Take no 
notice of them! March straight on!" were the General's 
orders to his soldiers, when surrounded with a howling 
East End mob. And the same directions were not. only 
given to, but acted on, by the rank and file in regard to 
the abuse and vituperation showered upon them from all 
quarters. "Answer them not a word," as Hezekiah said to 
his people upon the wall, when Rabshakeh sought to 
shake their fidelity. 

It is not a little difficult to understand the philosophy 
of the criticism and other forms of opposition through 
which the Salvation Army has found it necessary to fight 
its way to its present position of acknowledged usefulness 
and success. Here was an organization that existed for the 
benefit of its fellow men. With the purest and most 
philanthropic motives were coupled the most disinterested 
and self-denying lives. It could not have been the mere 
peculiarity of the measures that provoked enmity. For 
others had been similarly assailed in bygone days who 
had relied upon no such methods for attracting attention. 
This may have been the excuse, but it was no more than an 
excuse, and a flimsy one at best. Had these methods not 
existed, or had they been widely different, some other 
ground for objection would doubtless have been invented. 

Perhaps one reason for this, as we have heard the late 
Catherine Booth remark, is "the spirit of selfishness, 
which seems so inveterate in the human race." 

Few are sufficiently noble to ask themselves, in facing 
the appearance of a new phenomenon, "What good will it 
do?" The first question is, "How will it affect me?" The 
whole world is surveyed from this narrow standpoint. Its 
great problems are solved in the dim light of this taper! 
The horizon of modern society is bounded by the length and 



36 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



breadth of individual petty interests. Selfishness per- 
vades the atmosphere. The Salvation Army bursts in 
upon the scene. The saloonkeeper says, "What will become 
of my customers?" The debauchee says, "The victims of 
my lust will slip through my fingers!" The lover of ease 
says, "They will disturb my neighborhood." The man of 
business says, "What can I make out of them?" The 
journalist says, "Which will increase my circulation best: 
to praise or blame— to approve or to condemn?" And as 
in the estimation of each, rightly or wrongly, the answer 
comes back, so the sails are trimmed and the helm turned! 

But whatever be the cause, it is a sorry spectacle, and 
calculated to make the hearts of the true followers of Grod 
bleed, to see the world fling its sword into the scale 
against those who would be its benefactors. Who can tell 
how often the "Woe to the vanquished!" of these Goths 
and Vandals of modern society has sealed the doom of 
some nascent effort to bless and cheer mankind, and how 
many a possible Rome it has consigned to the flames before 
its day! These Herods seek for the "Babe," it is true, as 
diligently as did the wise men of the East themselves, but 
it is too often to slay rather than to worship Him. Strange 
that, when the conflagration of sin and misery is at its 
height, those who profess to hold in their hands the hose 
should turn it, not upon the fire, but on the heads of those 
whose sole desire is to give their life's blood in contributing 
to quench the flames. But what we may not understand 
we can at least patiently endure, and in the stirring words 
of Catherine Booth, written to a friend in the early days 
of the movement: 

"We go on through floods and storms and flames, Grod 
is with us, and out of this movement H3 is going to resus- 
citate the Acts of the Apostles. We see the pillar of cloud, 
and after it we must go, It may be that the rich and the - 
genteel will draw off from us. They did so when the 
Master neared the vulgar Cross and the vulgar crowd. 
But we cannot help it. We are determined to cleave to 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH 



3? 



the Cross, yea, the Cross between two thieves, if that will 
save the people!" 

How great a change has since come over public opinion 
find how extensively the Army has now come to be recog- 
nized as an agency for good in reaching and reforming the 
masses, may be evidenced by the following messages 
received during the past year 1897) from eminent per 
sonages. 

On the occasion of our last American anniversary His 
Excellency the President of the United States, wrote as 
follows: 

"Executive Mansion, Washington, 

"November 27 1897. 

"Dear Sir and Madam, 

"Your interesting letter of recent date addressed to 
President McKinley has received his attention, and in the 
President's behalf I am authorized to send you a few 
words of greeting and good cheer on the occasion of the 
celebration of the anniversary to be held at Carnegie 
Music Hall in New York, on Tuesday next, the 30th 
instant. 

"The report which your letter contains of the progress of 
your philanthropic work is one of which you have a 
right to be proud, and which will interest every patriotic 
citizen. The President, I can assure you, fully realizes the 
effective relief work now being done on such a large scale 
by those associated with you. 

"It was gratifying to the President to receive you at the 
White House on your visit to Washington a short time 
ago, and from him you have already had words of sym- 
pathy and encouragement. 

"Thanking you most cordially for your assurances of 
loyalty and affection, on the part of so many American 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Salvationists for whom you speak, toward the President 
personally, and for the success of his administration of the 
great office which he holds, 

"1 have the honor to be, with respect, 
"Very sincerely yours, 

"J. ADDISON PORTER, 

"Secretary to the President." 

At the annual gathering in the Crystal Palace, London, 
the following sympathetic telegram was received from 
Her Majesty Queen Victoria: 

"Windsor Castle. 

"To General Booth: 

"The Queen wishes to express to all the members of the 
Salvation Army now assembled for their Triennial Con- 
gress her heartfelt thanks for their touching message of 
loyal congratulations and earnest good wishes. Her 
Majesty fully recognizes the great and varied works so 
courageously undertaken by the Army on behalf of so 
many of their unhappy fellow creatures in different parts 
of her empire. 

"The Queeu fervently trusts that Divine guidance and 
blessing may accompany all future efforts of the Army. 

"July 20, 1897." 

Scarcely less interesting is an extract from a letter 
received by General Booth from the Hon. William Evvart 
Gladstone, ex Premier of England, in which, referring to 
a recent interview, he speaks of "the very remarkable and 
interesting circumstances which you were good enough to 
lay before me. Apart from the formation of such opinions. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



3(> 



I had useful lessons to learn from the reception of such a 
communication. It helps me to look out upon the wide 
world and reflect with reverence upon the singular diver- 
sity of the instruments which are in operation for recover- 
ing mankind, according to the sense of those who use 
them, from their condition of sin and misery; and encour- 
ages hearty good will towards all that, under whatever 
name, is done with a genuine purpose to promote the 
work of God in the world. The harvest truly is plenteous; 
may He send further laborers into His harvest." 
"Hawarden Castle, January 2, 1897." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE HALLELUJAH LASSES 



"The polis (police) could do nowt wp me! The niagis- 
trays could do nowt wi* me! But yon little lass could do 
owt wP me that she likes!" The speaker was a tall, burly, 
iron- worker in the North of England The tears in his 
eyes emphasized his words. He had been a drunkard and 
desperate character, but now, like the man out of whom a 
legion of devils had been cast, he was "clothed and in his 
right mind," a wonder to all the town and country-side, 
and almost brokenhearted, because the meeting that was 
then being held was the farewell of the young girl who had 
been the means of leading him to Christ. Verily, it was 
"not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit" that so- 
wonderful a change had been wrought. Hundreds in that 
same town could testify to a similar revolution in their 
lives. 

And yet there was nothing very remarkable either 
in the appearance or the words of the one to whom under 
God they owed their salvation. There were none of the 
flashy gewgaws and not a vestige of the hollow claptrap 
that serve to constitute the attraction of the stage or 
circus. The dress was severely neat, Quakerish, Puri- 
tanical — not a feather, flower, or furbelow to be seen. 
The demeanor was in keeping with the attire — modest, 
unassuming, simplicity personified. Tha language was 
that of everyday life — plain, almost commonplace — and 
could not have been more destitute of the artificialities of 
rhetoric And yet there was eloquence, but it was the 
eloquence of nature, which as much transcends the most 
polished flights of art as the note of the nightingale does 
the ding-dong of the belfry, or the roar of Niagara the 
salvo of saluting cannon. 

40 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



41 



There was no need to "gild" the already "refined gold," 
"to paint the lily, or add a perfume to the violet." And 
'as in the limpid waters of a pool the starlit sky stoops, so 
to speak, and imprints itself upon the earth, thus the 
hearts of that vast audience were made to reflect the burn- 
ing words that fell from the speaker's lips, till it seemed 
as if, to a man, their feelings might be summed up in the 
convert's expressive utterance, "Yon lass can do owt wi' 
me that she likes." * 

Sometimes the Salvation Army is blamed for ignoring 
the achievements of others. As a matter of fact neither 
time nor space has yet been found to relate our own. 
There is no need to fill our columns with ancient history, 
or to roam the world and ransack the churches in ordtr 
to discover stirring examples of devotion and self sacri- 
fice. We cannot pause to canonize the dead of centuries 
gone by while living host of saints and martyrs take their 
place and carry on their work. Thrilling incidents and 
biographies await the pen of the future historian. But 
for the present, unless they are chronicled in Heaven, they 
are scarcely chronicled at all 

There was Kate Shepherd, the heroine of the Rhondda 
Valley in Wales, the leader of one of the most powerful 
revivals the world has ever seen. Buildings were too small 
ta contain the crowds who flocked to listen to the girl 
preacher. For hours together, in the open- air, under the 
shadow of the Welsh mountains, the people by thousands 
would hang upon her lips. And when with lifted face and 
closed eyes, standing in her cart pulpit, she burst into a 
torrent of prayer, it seemed as if a pin-fall would have 
jarred upon the breathless silence of the audience. Kate's 
power in prayer was unique. It was not so much what 
she said as the way she said it. "O Lord, You know 
they are mis er a bler* she would begin, and the heart of 
every sinner in the congregation seemed to echo back, 
almost audibly, "You know we are miserable!" 

The prayer finished the clear, sweet voice would ring 
through the air in some popular refrain adapted to 



42 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



spiritual words, which were heartily taken up by the 
crowd. And then followed a simple testimony to (rod's 
saving grace, and appeal upon appeal for every sinner to 
decide then and there the question of his soul's salvation. 
"Won't you come? You'll be sorry for it some day ! Yes, 
you WJiiL!" And the large, dark, earnest eyes, brimful of 
tears, enforced the argument with a pathetic power, alas, 
too often lacking in the pulpit ministrations of to-day. 
No wonder that hundreds upon hundreds of the roughest 
class flocked like little children to the penitent-form and 
entered the Kindgom of Heaven through the labors of the 
girl of seventeen who had dropped suddenly down into 
their midst like an angel from the skies. 

For ten years she continued her faithful and successful 
labors, neither daunted by opposition nor puffed up by 
flattery such as might have excited the vanity of many a 
more experienced laborer. Six offers of marriage during 
the first seven weeks, including two from ministers, did not 
cause her to falter or draw back from the path of duty; 
and when at length, prematurely worn out by the ex- 
hausting toil of her early years, she married and retired 
from public life, she manifested in private the Christian 
graces which had made her ministry so successful. 

It would be easy to multiply instances of a similar char- 
acter. Indeed, where so many have excelled, it seems in- 
vidious to select individual names for special mention. It 
is only as types of the rest that we have ventured to single 
out a few of the most prominent. For these ministering 
women were not mere facsimiles of each other. Some 
were quiet and reserved, others loud and demonstrative. 
Some struggled on amid tears and fears, others enjoyed 
boisterously high spirits. But in courage, faith, love, and 
zeal it would be difficult to say which excelled. 

The very opposite of the Kate Shepherd class was the 
notorious "Happy Eliza," an excellent specimen of the 
ready-for-anything spirit which has from the first charac- 
terized the Salvation Army. When stationed with Mrs. 
Reynolds at Nottingham, the usual advertisements having 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



43 



failed to draw the crowd, she marched through the town 
with streamers floating from her hair and jacket and a 
placard across her back, "I am Happy Eliza!" 

The respectables were more than ever scandalized, but 
the denizens of the saloons and slums forsook their ale 
pots and street brawls to have a look at the wide- 
mouthed, loud-voiced, fearless preacheress who had 
rushed like a whirlwind through their haunts, and who 
evidently understood so well their language and their 
habits. 

When a herd of wild elephants have been captured in 
the East it is customary to send some tamed ones into 
their midst to fraternize with tliem and induce them to 
submit to their new and strange surroundings. Acting 
upon this principle the Salvation Army preferred to select 
for their agents those who had been born and bred in the 
dark depths of civilization "a jungledom, Happy Eliza 
was one of these. Fear was not to be found in her vocabu- 
lary. She knew and cared as little about the rules and 
regulations of conventionality as did the human outlaws 
of society who were the objects of her attention. The 
game she was pursuing fought shy of the ways and words 
of civilized society. The religious trap set to catch them 
was no doubt very excellent, but unfortunately they had 
grown wary and would not walk inside. But this woman 
Nimrod, this "mighty hunter before the Lord, "instead of 
waiting for the prey to come to her, had followed it to its 
most remote hiding place. And not in vain. The hall was 
soon filled. Scores of the most desperate characters were 
saved, and Happy Eliza was soon marching backward 
down the streets, waving her fiddle stick and leading on a 
procession of converted ruffians, singing to the air of 
"Marching Through Georgia :" 

"Shout aloud salvation, boys! We'll have another song! 
Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along; 
Sing it as our fathers sang it many a million strong, 
As they went marching to Glory!" . 



44 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



It was not long before Happy Eliza's name became a 
household word throughout England. To the roughs she 
was the very type and embodiment of the Salvation Army 
spirit. Not a bonneted soldier could pass through the 
streets without having the name shouted after her. 
Music hall ballads, by being dedicated to her. ensured 
their popularity. Dolls and toys received her name, 
while candies imprinted with the magic title, com- 
manded a ready sale among the little street urchins, with 
whom "a 'aporth o' 'appy Lizas" possessed an irresistible 
attraction. 

And when a little later she was transferred to Mary 
lebone, where an old theatre was to be opened, the same 
spirit of daring don't-careism secured the same glorious 
results. There were neither soldiers nor bands to ad- 
vertise her. But she was equal to the occasion. A four- 
wheeler was hired, with brass instruments inside and a 
drum on the box. Happy Eliza took up her position on the 
luggage railed roof, and drove through the streets, altern- 
ately playing her fiddle and distributing thousands of 
hand-bills which announced the coming meetings. The story 
of the work that followed would fill an interesting volume 
of its own. How could such desperate goaheadism fail to 
secure the results at which it aimed? 

Happy Eliza is still living. After years of faithful ser- 
vice she married a fellow officer whose health broke down. 
Ordered abroad to a warmer climate both are now laboring 
in connection with a missionary society for the salvation 
of the heathen Eliza visited the Old Country not long 
since, and called upon her comrades. Times, were not 
quite so lively she admitted, as when she had "stormed the 
forts of darkness" in "heathen England." But who can 
tell the value of the training that these mothers in Israel 
will give to generations yet to rise up and follow in their 
footsteps? 

Another character of the indomitable sort was Chinee 
Smith. Clogged and trampled upon by a rough Lancashire 
jnob, her bonnet torn from her head and* Uer shoes from, 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



45 



her feet, she marched in her stockings through the streets, 
her hair streaming down her back, took her place on the 
platform and went on with the service as if nothing had 
happened. Of course the hall was packed to suffocation 
and before the meeting closed souls were seeking sal 
vation. 

The beat of the much-abused Army drum, almost 
the first time its now familiar echoes were ever heard in 
the streets, drew from the bar-room of a provincial town 
a bevy of wild young girls, bent upon a mischievous 
frolic at the expense of the processionists. It was a 
miserable drizzling evening, but the Captain halted for 
the usual open-air meeting, and was soon surrounded 
by a fine crowd — the eUite of the adjacent slummeries; 
people who took little notice of the weather, and who 
felt more at home with the slush under foot and the rain 
pattering down from above than, I was going to say, 
in the finest cathedral in the land. But the comparison 
would be a mockery. There were few in that crowd who 
ever crossed the threshold of a church. How could they 
go? They carried their scanty wardrobes on their 
backs, and whenever the long deferred washingday came 
round it was spent in bed, or rather in an apology for 
such, while the clothes were drying. What verger would 
have admitted, what congregation would have tolerated, 
the presence of such a tatterdermalion throng? 

But here they were on their own ground and in their 
own element. There was no one to criticize them. Indeed, 
it was their turn to be the critics, and criticize they freely 
did, with a caustic humor that was certainly less tedious 
than the insipid commonplaces of an after-sermon supper- 
table. The Captain's voice was hoarse. No wonder. 
Seven open-air and ten indoor meetings a week would be 
calculated to try the strongest lungs and throat. But the 
hoarseness of the Captain's voice preached a better sermon 
than any of the speaker's words to at least one heart in 
that rough audience. For, strange as it may seem to 
some, in the lowest depths of slumdom hearts are to be 



46 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



found as tender and as beautiful as ever beat within the 
breast of womanhood 

It has been said that the crime, vice and misery that 
stamp the poor aro less conscience-searing than the pride, 
luxury and formality of the upper classes. Perhaps it is 
because the former carry their own condemnation, while 
the latter hide their sin beneath the veneer of appearances. 
Whether this be so or not, the Captain would have 
surely felt rewarded had she known that among that rude, 
rough, jeering crowd, apparently so hardened in their sins, 
so indifferent to the claims of Grod. so careless of their own 
highest interests, the ariow shot at a venture had struck 
between the joints of the harness one who was to be so 
signally used in the saving of souls. It was the leader of 
the gang of girls who had rushed out of the saloon. 

What could be more unlikely than that "Nick," of all 
others, should be converted, join the Salvation Army, and 
become one of its most successful officers? She had not an 
ounce of religion about her. Neither church nor Sunday 
school had exercised any leavening influences. Her rich 
contralto voice had made her a welcome visitor at the 
saloons and music halls of her native town. Her mischief 
loving propensities and her born capacity for command 
had made her ringleader of a band of girls, in captaining 
whom she gained some of the experience that was to 
prove so useful in after days. 

But one incident of her childhood discloses a pleasing 
feature in her character, foreshadowing in a measure the 
future that was in store. Her father, in a drunken rage, 
was rushing at her mother, knife in hand, when the child 
sprang at him, wrenched the knife from his grasp, and fled 
as fast as her feet could carry her. She had made good her 
escape when she tripped and fell upon the blade, losing 
the sight of one eye by the sad accident. Many an 
audience has since been deeply moved at the recital of this 
act of heroism on the part of the mother-loving girl But 
at the time it made little impression and produced no 
difference in her life. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



On the present occasion, however, "Nick'' was for once 
subdued. "What brings the Captain out on such a night 
as this, and with her voice in such a state?" she solilo- 
quized to herself, restraining her unruly followers, and 
passing the word that the "lark" was to be deferred until 
they had reached the barracks. Ranging themselves in a 
row across the hall, the turbulent group took up their 
position and awaited their leader's signal to commence the 
fun. But the signal never came. The conscience-smitten 
girl had taken part in her last "spree." The tears were in 
her eyes. Deep conviction was followed by genuine 
repentance and true conversion. She could do nothing by 
halves. She must needs join as a soldier, march, sing, 
testify and toil for souls So consistent was her life that 
when after two years' faithful service, she was accepted 
as a candidate for the work, her companions in the factory 
where she had been employed presented her with a Bible 
as a mark of their good will and affection. 

It would be easy to go on mult iplying similar instances 
of women who have risen up in thousands and tens of 
thousands all over the world, exchanging lives of sin and 
misery or of worldly ease and frivolity for superhuman 
efforts on behalf of the perishing. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



the founding of the salvation army in America. 

In 1872 the Salvation Army anticipated for the first 
time the world wide field which it was subsequently to 
enter upon, and Mr. and Mrs. Booth found themselves 
forced into an unsought and almost undesired advance. 
That the Mission should have an international and not 
merely a British sphere of usefulness was more than they 
had ventured to suppose. And yet they had always 
endeavored to lay down and act oat principles which would 
harmonize with human nature everywhere. 

A year previously one of the most successful of the 
Mission workers, Brother Jermy, had emigrated to Canada, 
from whence he had crossed over to the United States, 
settling in Cleveland, Ohio, Here his spirit had been 
deeply stirred at the sight of scenes resembling those which 
he had witnessed in East London. But there was no 
similar agency for grappling with the evil, nor was there 
much hope that Mr. Booth could be induced to send his 
evangelists to so distant a place when his hands were 
already full. There was only one alternative, and that 
was to represent the Mission cause himself. With that 
blessed audacity which has characterized the Salvation 
Army from its foundation, he resolved, single-handed to 
"hoist," as he termed it, "the Mission flag" on American 
soil, and then write for advice as to the best methods for 
proceeding with the work. 

It so happened that at this time he fell in with an earn- 
est young man, James Fackler by name, who was a local 
preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and to whom 
he unburdened his heart. Joined by one or two friends 
who were like minded, they formed among themselves a 

48 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



branch of the Mission, and set to work on exactly similar 
lines to those adopted in London. Jermy and Fackler 
then wrote off to the General, describing what they had 
done, and asking him to recognize their work, and advise 
them as to what course they should pursue. The following 
is an extract from Jenny's letter. It is headed somewhat 
significantly, "Unfurling of the Flag of the Christian 
Mission in America." 

"September 2, 1872. 

"When I got here I found thousands going the way of 
death. Some parts of this city look like Whitechapel. 
Here human nature is the same, with drunkenness and 
every other sin. Mission work is much needed. I felt like 
going into it in the name of Jesus. The third Sunday 1 
was here I went by a little hall; I looked up and read 
'Christian Chapel. The poor have the Gospel preached 
unto them.' I almost shouted. I went in and found a few 
colored people. They looked hard and thought I looked 
like preaching, saying, 'Don't you preach?' I said, 'A 
little that way;' so I must preach for them. They wanted 
me the next Sunday. 'If the young man don't come, will 
you oblige?' When I went I found the young man in the 
pulpit, and it was the young man that has written to you. 
He is well cut out for the Christian Mission. I told him all 
about our work in England. 'Brother,' said he, 'that is 
what I have been waiting for.' I gave him my hand and 
said, 'Let us come out for God and souls.' 'Yes,' said he, 
'we will pray about it.' I told him that I had prayed. 
Glory to God! an appointment was made, and we met 
another brother and prayed. The Lord came down in 
power. We all said, 'It is of God!' 

"The same day five brethren went to a large village. 
Here they have no preacher. We called at a house where 
we found a Methodist leading a class. Oh, what a blessed 
meeting this, was! We came out shouting 'Glory to the 
Lamb!' On Sunday, July 1st, one brother went down 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH, 



to hold meetings there, while I and the other brethren 
opened a new place in the city with good attendance and 
great power. Since Sunday I hear that the people, as 
above, are going to build a hall. This is to be a Christian 
Mission house. 

"I shall be so glad if you will send me word how the 
Mission is doing, and as your experience is great in mis- 
sion work, we would like some advice. Will you acknowl- 
edge us? Amen! The Mission flag is hoisted. Holiness 
to the Lord I 

4 4 Yours in Jesus, 

"JAMES JERMY. 
'239 Erie Street, Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. America, 5 ' 

The response sent by the General to this appeal was 
addressed to Packler as secretary, and is so full of sound 
advice that we quote from it the following paragraphs: 

"Sept. 20, 1872. 

"My dear Brother: Your letter duly reached me. I am 
at present set aside by affliction; have been wandering 
about from home six months seeking health. I name my 
affliction as the reason for my delay in writing. 

"I read your letter to the workers at our Friday morning 
meeting in London, amid tokens of deep sympathy and 
thanksgiving; and then we knelt down and spread it 
before the Lord, and called on Him for His abundant 
blessing and guidance in all your efforts. He will give you 
this. I feel He will, even while I write. Ail glory to His 
name! 

"So you have raised the banner of the Christian Mission 
in Ohio. Amen! May it never be dishonored, but may it 
float over an Army of men and women whose sole aim shall 
be the glory of God in the salvation and happiness of men. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



51 



} Remember, our motto is 'Holiness to the Lord, and the 
| world for Jesus!' Start fair. Remember quality is of far 
| more importance than quantity. . Like produces like That 
which your first little band is, succeeding societies will be. 
Therefore, aim at thoroughness and wholeheartedness in 
the company you allow to associate with you. You ask me 
for advice. I hardly know enough of your position to 
give you counsel. One or two things I think I may say, 
and when I hear from you again I will write further. 

"1. Ours is an extraordinary work, and therefore we try 
to accomplish it by extraordinary means. We gave up all 
concern for our reputation at the commencement, and were 
resolved we would succeed and have souls at all costs. The 
great curse of the church is respectability. 'Throw 
reputation and so called respectability overboard. Let 
others have the finery and oratory. Go in with all your 
might for souls and God. 

"2. Be a man of prayer, and teach your colleagues the 
power and virtue of knee-work. 

"3. I rejoice that you have grasped Jesus as a Saviour 
from all sin. Push this blessing wherever and whenever 
you labor. 

"4. Aim at souls at every service. 

"5. Do plenty of open-air work. I believe there is also 
much to be done in house-to-house visitation. Try all or 
any means. 

"May He guide you and give you great sincerity, and, 
as I was going to say, above all other blessings, humility. 
Oh, the mightiness of meekness! There are thousands 
whom God is yearning to use in the soul winning work, 
but dare not. Success would turn their heads and be their 

ruin. * 

* # * # * * 

"Be very careful of the kind of spirits you associate with 
you. One contentious, masterful spirit can make you and 
the work endless sorrow. Such spirits have almost broken 



52 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



my heart. Beware of men who will wai t to come in 
because they can be great among you, and indulge the 
natural love of talking that exists in many. One humble, 
though illiterate worker, full of simplicity and the Holy 
Ghost, is worth a regiment of such. 

* * * * e * * 

"Tell Brother Jermy that Mrs. Pengelly is somewhere 
in Canada. Her husband writes a friend that although 
they have got work and good temporal prospects, still he 
believes not a day has passed since they left London that 
she has not wept at being separated from the Mission. I 
feel sure she will find you out if she can. 

"And now, farewell. May you have divine light! This 
is a day in which the direct and positive and constant 
guidance and indwelling of the Holy Ghost is set little 
store by. You must hold on to it, enjoy it in all its fulness, 
and proclaim it to others as their privilege— nay, as a 
necessity if they would be of any use here, or be made 
meet for the Kingdom above. We will pray for you. Pray 
for us. May God give you grace to lay a good foundation 
and keep you at His feet. 

"Believe me to be your brother in Jesus, 

"WILLIAM BOOTH." 

In March, 1873, Jermy writes: 

"The reason of our delay in writing is that our hands 
are so full. We have opened two stations, and converting 
work is going on gloriously. There are many seeking the 
Lord, and believers seeking sanctification Pray for us! I 
spent a few hours the other day with Brother Fackler, in 
house-to-house visitation, praying in each house. We 
found many backsliders. Canada and America are full of 
backsliders. The churches are ornamented and long- 
steepled, but there is little soul-converting: power. Oh, 
let prayer go up for America, that the Kingdom of our 



(}£SEtiAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



God and His Christ may dwell among us! Amen and 
Amen!" 

The letter was delayed a fortnight, and he added to it. 

"Many souls hare been converted since I wrote this 
letter. Glory to the Lamb! Two weeks since we opened 
a large shop in the Broadway, which was filled to over- 
flowing. We are holding a protracted meeting [a meeting 
kept up by relays of workers without intermission], and 
souls are being saved every night. Better news to come." 

Some months afterwards Jenny returned to England 
and the work which he had commenced was given up. 

It was seven years later when the work was renewed by 
a tamily of emigrants from England. Amos Shirley 
and his wife had been for some time soldiers in the 
Coventry corps, and had taken part in the revival which 
had so powerfully influenced the town. Their daughter 
Eliza had served for some months as an officer and they 
had all gained some practical experience of the Salvation 
Army work. About the middle of 1879 they sailed for 
America, settling in Philadelphia, where Mr. Shirley 
obtained work as foreman in a silk factory. 

The birthplace of the Salvation Army in England had 
been a tent in a burial ground That of the Salvation 
Army in America was neither as oriental nor quite as 
funereal. And yet it partook of the same Bethlehemite 
character. The reporter of the Philadelphia News, who 
was the first to chronicle their doings, discovered them in 
an abandoned chair factory, 4 'eighty feet long by forty 
broad, whose rough boarded and whitewashed walls, and 
overhanging beams and rafters, savored more of a stable 
than a place of worship." Well, there was evidently ''no 
room" for the poor man's Saviour in the "inns" of Phila- 
delphian respectability. And, after all, it mattered little, 
for if the place failed to sanctify the people the people 
served to sanctify the place. 



54 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



The beacon star of the Army — the salvation of souls - 
was not long in appearing. Those shepherds of the 
slums, the outcasts of society, gathered as of old around 
the manger — not always to "worship," it is true. And 
yet ma.ny who came to mock remained to pray. The 
saloonkeeper, that Herod of the drink traffic, whose 
scourge society has too long tolerated, was soon upon the 
scenes, inquiring after his ex subjects, who had so sud- 
denly transferred their allegiance to another power. But 
the Shirleys were veterans, and had learned to rejoice in 
the midst of such disturbances. Instead of sitting down 
like Rachel, to weep over what they could not help, they 
felt more like summoning all Israel, from Dan even to 
Beersheba, from London to Philadelphia, to join them in 
making war against the American Sisera and his host. 

The General could no longer resist the appeal. So im- 
portant did the opportunity appear that he resolved to dis- 
patch Mr. Kailton, since Commissioner, with a party of 
seven of the now famous Hallelujah Lasses, to take up 
the work which the Shirleys had commenced. The pro- 
posal was received with enthusiasm by all concerned, and 
was promptly carried into effect. The first account of the 
meetings held by the Shirleys was published in the War 
Cry on the 31st January, 1880, and on the 12th of the fol- 
lowing month the detachment farewelled at the White- 
chapel Hall, sailing on the 14th in the steamer "Aus- 
tralia." 

Mrs. Catherine Booth, mother of the Salvation Army, 
who took from the first the deepest interest in this expe- 
dition, presented the officers with two flags, one for the 
1st New York and the other for the 1st Philadelphian 
corps, urging them in the course of a powerful address, 
to be faithful to their vows, 

"You look young," she said, turning to the sisters who 
composed the party, one of whom had been for some years 
her servant, and who is still an officer in the ranks. "To 
some people you may appear insignificant—but so do we 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



B5 



all. So did those women who stood grouped round the 
cross of Christ to the proud Pharisees who walked, mocking, 
past. But their names have been handed down to us, 
while those of the Pharisees have been forgotten. 

"I present you with these flags in the name of our great 
King, who bought all sinners with His blood, and who 
bids us go forth and sprinkle them with it. First in His 
name, and then in that of the General of this Army, I hand 
them to you, praying that Grod may give you, young as 
you are, strength to fight heroically under His banner, and 
to lead tens of thousands to the cross." 

The meeting was an impressive one. Amongst those 
present were Lady Cairns, Sir Arthur Blackwood, Mr. 
Denny and other friends of the Army. Mr. Railton, with 
the members of his little party, addressed the meeting, 
attired in a new military style of uniform, with broad red 
bands upon their hats on which "The Salvation Army,' ? 
was worked in conspicuous letters. A profound impres- 
sion was created by the meeting, which was still further 
increased when, two days later, the party were conducted 
in procession from Whitechapel to Fenchurch Street 
Station, Mrs. Booth following in a hansom. Describing 
their departure in a letter to a friend, she says : 

"We have been in a perfect whirl of excitement and 
rush ever since the meeting. I have been at Whitechapel 
all the time. The getting off of dear Railton and the 
sisters was a scene. Hundreds of people walked in proces- 
sion to Fenchurch Street. They sang all the way, and 
omnibuses, wagons and vehicles of all kinds stopped and 
lined the roads to see them pass. They then marched on 
from the Tidal Basin Station to the ship. We had half an 
hour in the Basin, in which a large ring was formed and a 
meeting held. All the crew and passengers on the ship 
seemed awe- struck, the saloon passengers standing on 
deck in the rain to listen, and before they set sail two 



56 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Army men turned up on board who were going out as 

emigrants 

"It was a grand sight. The women's hats looked 
capital, being larger, and having a broad crimson band 
with gold letters Three Army Flags were flying on board, 
and the enthusiasm of the people seemed to strike with awe 
even the men who were hauling in the bales. I believe 
Grod will give them many a seal to their ministry before 
they get there. 

"Dear, devoted Railton, looked well in his uniform, and 
appeared as happy as an angel. Bless him! 1 love him as 
a son! Oh, to win millions for our Saviour King! We 
shall!" 

It was always a matter of deep regret to Mrs. Catherine 
Booth that failing health prevented her from visiting 
America, a regret which has been shared, doubtless, by 
thousands who have read her books and who would fain 
have listened to the author's voice. 

Her peculiarly incisive and persuasive mode of oratory 
could not have failed to secure great triumphs, and would 
have enabled the Salvation Army to~ overcome more 
rapidly the unusual difficulties which for some time 
hindered its progress. 

At first sight it might have appeared improbable that 
the Salvation Army, with its military organization, would 
find congenial soil in the United States In the land where 
every unit is a star, and every star, in theory at least, pos 
sesses equal radiance, where big stars and little stars are 
unknown, and imperial suns and moons are not permitted 
to rival the brilliant equality of the sky, it might naturally 
be supposed that no place would have been found for this 
new constellation, with ail its gradations of smallness and 
greatness, inferiority and superiority, obedience and com- 
mand, with suns, moons, planets, fixed stars, shooting 
stars, milky ways long-tailed comets, and all the other 
complex paraphernalia of a Salvation Army firmament! 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



5? 



But who has not recognized the wide divergence that 
often exists between theory and practice? The Salvation 
Army found in America the unity of law and order, while 
America recognized in the Salvation Army the equality of 
lovel Each unit is as free to shine, to be good and to do 
good, and that to the utmost limit of its capacity, as any 
citizen in the United States. 

And thus the Republic has recognized in the Salvation 
Army the freedom of virtue, and the Salvation Army has 
recognized in the Republic the absolutism of law. With 
nothing to be ashamed of in its life and works, the Salva- 
tion Army stands beneath the blazing light of the Statue 
of Liberty and invites the utmost scrutiny of all. It asks 
but for liberty to do good And its request has not been 
denied. Recognizing in the new movement worthy 
motives and pure lives, the great Republic has welcomed 
to its shores those who must to many have borne so 
singular a resemblance to the Pilgrim Fathers, who laid 
the foundations of its own greatness. 

The work in America now stands second only to Great 
Britain in point of numbers. During the last twelve 
months ending December, 1897, the corps or posts in the 
United States have increased from 600 to 735, the officers 
from 2,000 to 2,450, the number of those publicly pro- 
fessing conversion during the year from 30,000 to 60,000, 
the Social institutions for the working classes from 28 to 
81, and their daily accommodation from 630 to 4,000. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE SALVATION ARMY IN MANY LANDS 



The work in Canada was commenced by a party o 
officers from New York. It spread with such rapidit 
that it soon became necessary to constitute a separat 
command. Under the able leadership of Commissioner 
Coombs every corner of the Territory was quickly occu- 
pied. 

Under the subsequent and telling: leadership of Com- 
mandant and Mrs. Herbert Booth the work was still 
further consolidated, and sweeping advances were carried 
out in the Social operations among the poor. 

During the last two years the work has gone forward 
with leaps and hounds under the charge of Field Commis- 
sioner Miss Eva Booth. On several occasions the vast 
Massey Hall, in Toronto, has been packed to overflowing 
with interested crowds, the Earl and Countess of Aberdeen 
on several occasions encouraging the audience with their 
presence and sympathy. The Industrial Farm has recently 
been inspected by the Governor General, who has ex 
pressed his pleasure at its able management. 



ausTRaus, 

The work of the Salvation Army in Australia was com- 
menced in a manner somewhat similar to that in America. 
The campaign was not a premeditated one. General Booth 

m 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



59 



did not sit down with a fixed plan for commencing opera- 
tions in that distant country. On the contrary he hesi- 
tated to assume such a responsibility. But when it was 
forced upon him as a call from God, the opportunity was 
accepted with alacrity. 

A convert of the Army, John Gore, a milkman, had 
emigrated to Adelaide, where he met a builder from Brad- 
ford, named Saunders, who had been saved through the 
same agency. Without waiting for officers to arrive they 
formed themselves into a corps, appointed a treasurer and 
secretary, placed themselves under the temporary leader- 
ship of Grore, and commenced open-air and indoor meet- 
ings. When writing to the General to send out officers 
they were able to report that already the work had fairly 
taken root, souls were being saved, and an invitation had 
been received to extend their operations to Sydney. "We 
need you as quick as fire and steam can bring you," wrote 
Gore. "There is no mistake about it. You must come 
immediately." 

The appeal was irresistible. Captain and Mrs. Suther- 
land were forthwith set apart to pioneer the work, or 
rather, to join and lead the original pioneers. Early in 
January, 1881, they set sail on board the steamship 
"Aconcagua," going forth on their journey of twelve 
thousand miles with the same calm confidence with which 
they would have started to take charge of a corps in 
England. Without money, without influence, and with 
but a handful of humble friends, these solitary Salva 
tionists started out on their errand of mercy, carrying with 
them the beloved banner, which was destined to pass from 
hand to hand till it had been planted in every nook and 
corner of Australian soil. 

The social operations constitute an important feature 
of our work in Australia, which is now under the efficient 
direction of Commandant and Mrs. Herbert Booth. A 
tract of 14,000 acres of land has recently been secured for 
the purpose of establishing an Over- Sea Colony in connec- 
tion with the "Darkest England Scheme." 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



i 

FRSNCE, 1881. 

Scarcely had the Australian expedition been launched 
when preparations were made for the despatch of th 
General's eldest daughter to France, whence pressin 
invitations had recently been received. Miss Booth coul 
ill be spared from England, where as a public speaker sh 
had already acquired a reputation and influence onl 
second to that of her parents. However, the General 
and Mrs. Booth were convinced that the call had come 
from God, and they therefore determined to carry it out 
regardless of the sacrifice. 

It was another landmark in the onward march of the 
Salvation Army. English-speaking nations were the first 
to claim a share in its attention, and the success achieved 
had encouraged the General and Mrs. Booth to extend 
their efforts to other lands, irrespective of language and 
governments. In doing so they realized that in certain 
respects further adaptations of their methods would be 
required But for this they were prepared. The being 
"all things to all men" could mean nothing less. The "thus 
far and no farther" of such changes they felt must be 
decided in each country under the ever- varying light of 
experience and circumstances. But the main principles 
they believed to be such as were suitable to the whole 
human race. And in this they were not disappointed. 



SWITZ ERLTtND, 1882. 

In 1882 the work in France was extended to Switzer- 
land. 

In no country has the Army encountered more bitter 
and persistent opposition than in the freedom-boasting 
republic, or rather federation of republics, of Switzerland. 
If one corner of the world might have been expected to 
offer more liberal scope for its operations than another, it 
might well have been supposed to have been here. The 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



articles of the Swiss Constitution, the Magna Charta of 
their national rights, guarantee liberty of conscience to 
every citizen. The special treaty of 1855 grants to British 
subjects the same privileges as to the Swiss citizen. Politi- 
cal refugees, and even anarchists, can meet, unhindered, to 
plot the downfall of friendly foreign powers. 

But when, in December, 1882, a handful of earnest 
enthusiasts entered Switzerland with the Gospel message, 
they were expelled, imprisoned, or handed over to the 
tender mercies of a brutal mob. The reason could not 
have been that there was no need for their labors, since it 
was well known and universally confessed that there was a 
large residuum of the population sunk in vice and infi- 
delity. If any had doubted it before they could hardly do 
so now, in view of the treatment met with by the Salvation 
Army. 

Nor, again, could it be said that the peculiar measures 
of the Salvation Army had exasperated the populace, as 
had been alleged in the case of some of the English disturb- 
ances. There were no processions down the streets, no 
flaring posters on the walls, and no brass bands. Every, 
thing that was calculated to be misunderstood, or to cause 
irritation was avoided. But it was of no avail. The meet- 
ing places were besieged, broken open, and literally 
pillaged. The authorities sided with the mob, closed the 
halls, forbade the meetings and expelled the officers One 
of the most important articles of the Swiss Constitution 
enacts that the home of the citizen shall be inviolable 
Even this was disregarded by the authorities, who were 
determined to uproot the new religion from the soil. 
Oppressive decrees were issued, in violation alike of the 
Constitution and of the treaty with England. Appeals 
were made against these arbitrary and illegal orders, both 
to the Federal authorities and the British Government. 
But in vain. 

There was only one way out of the dilemma, and that 
was to challenge the decrees by disobeying them, thus 
bringing them within the jurisdiction of the legal tribunals 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



of Switzerland. Lawyers were consulted and advised that 
this was the only means tor compelling the authorities to 
retrace their steps. Swiss friends and soldiers offered 
eagerly to endure whatever might be the consequence. 
Physically delicate, and sensitive in spirit as she was, 
Miss Booth would not agree that others should bear the 
penalty, and resolved that she would herself dispute the 
illegal orders. At the same time all reasonable pretext for 
the interference of the authorities and enforcement of their 
decree was removed by arranging that the meeting which 
was to take place should be held in the woods some five 
miles distant from Neuchatel, one of the cantons from 
which Miss Booth had been expelled. The invitations 
were, moreover, issued privately, through the sergeants 
and friends, no public announcement being made. 

At the appointed place and time the meeting was held. 
Soon after its commencement the police, who had acquain- 
ted themselves with the arrangements by tampering with 
letters sent through the post, appeared upon the scene. 
They did not, however, interrupt the proceedings, which 
lasted for four hours. Many of the converts testified. 
Some of them appealed to the Prefect of Police and con- 
stables, as knowing what their previous characters had 
been, and pointed their attention to the reformation which 
had since taken place. It was the first meeting that the 
Prefect had attended, and he admitted subsequently that 
he had been greatly misinformed as to the character of the 
work, and that after what he had heard he could only 
wish it well. At the same time he announced it as his 
painful duty to arrest Miss Booth and Captain Becquet for 
disobedience to the decree. Bail was accepted for a few 
days, in order to enable Miss Booth to attend the funeral 
of a convert at Geneva, and on the 17th September, 1883, 
she surrendered herself to the authorities, and was con- 
fined for twelve days in the Neuchatel prison pending 
trial. 

It is impossible within the limits of this story to give 
the thrilling details of the proceedings in the law court. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Suffice it to say they resulted in the acquittal of Miss 
Booth. Nevertheless, the bitter persecution of Salvation- 
ists continued for several years. • 

Among other cartoons published by the comic papers 
was one representing a Salvationist as being knocked 
down. He appeals to a policeman who promptly takes 
him into custody for the crime of being beaten, while the 
assailant leisurely walks off! Another cartoon pictures 
the Christian authoress of a savage pamphlet against the 
Salvation Army as sitting in state with her feet cushioned 
on the corpse of a Salvationist, receiving the warm con- 
gratulations of two government officials. In recognition 
of her services one of them, a liquor seller, is presenting 
her with a cask of wine, as a token of his gratitude for her 
protection of his "lawful trade." The other is offering 
her two volumes of sermons, which he is sure she will 
greatly enjoy. Beer and Bible had once more joined 
hands! Beneath the picture were the words, "The death- 
blow to the Salvation Army!" But, as usual, a speedy 
resurrection followed the fancied death. 

The work in France and Switzerland is now under the 
leadership of our devoted and talented comrades, Com- 
mander and Mrs. Booth-Hellberg. The popular tide of 
misunderstanding and opposition has been succeeded by a 
wave of the warmest national sympathy on the part of 
those two sister republics, and in few countries does the 
uniform of the Salutiste secure a more kindly welcome and 
respectful hearing than in France and Switzerland. 



HOLLAND 2£ND BELGIUM. 

In Holland a warm hearted reception was accorded to 
our officers from the first, both by the public and the 
government. The police and city officials co operate most 
zealously in our efforts to help the poor, while the Queen 
Regent and various members of the nobility have been 
numbered amongst our earlie&t contributors. 



64 GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 

The rapid growth of anarchy and socialism amongst the 
lower elements of the Dutch population has afforded the 
Army an opportunity of exhibiting the peculiar suitability 
of its measures for gaining the hearts of these very classes 
and for transforming them into law-abiding, God-fearing 
citizens. 

Linked to Holland is our work in Belgium, where ex- 
ceptional difficulties have been encountered. But the suc- 
cessful series of meetings recently conducted in Brussels 
by Commissioner and Mar^chale Booth Clibborn have lent 
a great impetus to our efforts. Dressed in sackcloth and 
ashes, as typical of the spiritual condition of multitudes in 
these gay centers, it was not surprising that the Mar6chale 
drew crowded audiences, who for once, at any rate, were 
bound to listen to the truths and think of the interests 
that never perish. 



scaNDiNavia, 1&82. 

The history of the Swedish expedition is particularly 
interesting. In 1878 Mr. Bramwell Booth had visited the 
country, in company with some Army friends, to recruit 
his shattered health. His presence had soon become whis- 
pered abroad, and it had been impossible to resist the in- 
vitations to hold private meetings which were pressed 
upon him. English is very much spoken in Sweden, and 
even where it is not generally understood translators are 
plentiful. Singularly single-hearted and receptive of the 
truth, the Swedes are among the best listeners in the 
world. A powerful impression was made, and a number 
of souls were saved and sanctified. 

Among them was a Miss Ouchterlony, who was so 
inspired with the conviction that the Salvation Army 
would accomplish a mighty work in her country that, 
finding letters ineffectual, she visited England for the 
purpose of personally representing its claims. The Gen 
eral, however, did not see his way clear to send officers. 




THE GENERAL IN 1562. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH 



65 



Miss Ouchterlony, undaunted by this disappointment 
declared she would be a Salvation Army in herself. 
Returning to Sweden, she took a hall in Gothenberg, 
where she commenced a successful series of meetings. 
Thinking that the more encouraging prospect would move 
the General's heart she again visited England, accom 
panied by one of her converts. The General was much 
affected by her devotion and persistence, and Miss Ouch- 
terlony had at length the satisfaction of returning to her 
country with a party of five officers for the establishment 
of the work. She was promoted to be a Major, and after- 
wards a Commissioner, remaining for ten years in charge 
of the Swedish work, where she has been loved and 
honored by all classes alike. 

After acting for some time as Traveling Commissioner 
in connection with International Headquarters, Miss 
Ouchterlony was appointed to the command of Norway, 
where the work has steadily advanced under her leader- 
ship, while Sweden continues to make most encouraging 
progress under the attractive administration of Commis- 
sioner and Mrs. Oliphant. 

No less romantic was the opening of Finland by Miss 
Von Hartman, a lady of position, who became a Salvation 
Army officer, and with rare devotion laid the foundation 
of our work in Russia as the pioneer apostle of that great 
. country. 

The work in Denmark was commenced by Colonel and 
Mrs. Perry, and has met with similar success. 



GERMANY SND ITftLY. 

Germany and Italy became successively the scene of 
Army operations. 

In Germany the reception was of a far more warlike 
character. The idea of our attempting to foist what were 
regarded as our crude notions of theology upon a nation 



66 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



so famous for its philosophical researches was treated as 
ridiculous in the extreme. Police restrictions hampered 
us at every turn. But from the first the common people 
heard us gladly. The contrast between theory and prac- 
tice, between dull dogma and active philanthropy, between 
complex doctrinal discourses and the refreshing simplicity 
of the Army teachings was so great and startling. More 
over, even the police could not fail to notice with surprise 
the large number of genuine moral reformations that took 
place before their eyes. The very vigilance of their super- 
vision convinced them of the reality of our work, when 
many of the most notorious characters, with whose pre- 
vious history they were only too familiar, became trans 
formed into the best of citizens. 

As a natural consequence opposition was changed into 
cordial support, and during the last few years, under the 
energetic leadership of Commissioner McKie, the work has 
blossomed forth and has become, if not as yet in extent, at 
least in character, equal to anything we possess on the Con 
tinent. The General was greeted by large and enthusisatic 
crowds during his recent visit, and the penitent-form was 
well lined with seekers, while the newspapers admitted the 
Army to the position of a German institution, well suited 
to grapple with the needs of the working classes of the 
Fatherland. 

Italy continues, up to the present, to be among our 
most difiQcult fields, but Brigadier and Mrs. Percy Clib 
born, who have lately taken charge, report that despite 
continued difficulties", the clouds are already rainbowed 
with the harbinger of better days. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH 



67 



THE ffRMY WORK JSMONG THE HESTHEN. 

It was in 1882 that General Booth first turned his atten- 
tion towards the heathen. India, Africa, Java, Japan, 
Hawaii, were successively ''opened," while the rate of pro 
gress varied with the circumstances, in each instance, the 
same definite results were achieved, and the suitability of 
Army principles and practices proved in regard to all the 
nations of the world. 

This was due largely to the spirit of adaptation, which 
the pioneer officers carried with them wherever they might 
go. "Unless you can denationalize yourself and become 
absolutely one in heart and thought with the people whom 
you seek to serve and save, you had better not go at all," 
General Booth would say to the bands of early missionaries 
commissioned for this arduous task. The learning of the 
language, the adoption of native customs and costumes, 
the intermingling with them in their daily life on a basis of 
absolute equality, these and similar lessons were instilled 
with untiring patience into the forthgoing officers. As a 
result it is hardly too much to say that a new era was 
inaugurated in mission work among the heathen, and a vast 
impetus given to the cause of Christ among nations, some 
of whom had been the most deeply entrenched in idolatry 
and superstition. Walls of prejudice were broken down 
and thousands of converts made. 

A story told to General Booth during his last visit to 
India by a member of the Viceroy's Council, will serve to 
illustrate the powerful effect exercised on even the most 
bigoted Hindoo by the Army tactics. "I was in charge of 
the Almorah district at the time, when one of your officers 
visited the city," said the Home Secretary. "To my sur- 
prise he was the guest of our most prominent Hindoo 
official, one who had made no secret of his antipathy to 
Christianity. I was still more interested to hear that this 
Hindoo gentleman had presided at a public meeting and 
had spoken strongly in favor of the Army, besides raising 
a subscription among his Hindoo and Mahommedan 
friends. When next I met the Sadr Amin I asked him 



68 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



whether the report was true, and what was the reason for 
this sudden change of front in his attitude towards Chris- 
tianity. He waited till I had finished, then paused, and 
looking me straight in the face, he said, 'Sahib, if we had 
seen more of this sort of Christianity, I and my people 
would all have been Christians long ago!' " 



CHAPTER X. 



SALVATION ARMY LITERATURE. 

The value of the press as an agency for tke extension 
of its work was early recognized by the founder of the Sal- 
vation Army. 

In October, 1868, the first number of a monthly inaga 
zine was issued* with the double purpose of promoting 
vital religion in its most aggressive form and of chronicling 
the work that was being carried on. 

Hitherto General Booth had been content with report- 
ing progress in the columns of various religious papers. 
Thu was for many reasons an undesirable expedient. The 
reports had to be trimmed and dressed to suit the editorial 
fancy, and might even then not find a place. It was not 
to be expected that a struggling organization should be 
allowed to usurp much space. Besides, there was no oppor- 
tunity for the free expression of opinion, or for the ad- 
vocacy and defence of methods which might not suit the 
general taste. It is amusing at this date to consider the 
hesitation and fear with which this little venture was 
regarded at the onset. The launching of the little papery 
craft caused as much perturbation and speculation as if it 
had been a monster ironclad from the printing arsenal. 
Would it float at all? or would it go straight to the 
bottom, as some were not slow to prophesy? But the trim 
little "East London Evangelist" survived all criticisms, 
and went forth on its errand of mercy with success. 

Next year it was rechristened as the "Christian Mission 
Magazine," in 1879 it was converted into the "Salva- 
tionist," and in 1880 it was docked and broken up, and its 
place taken by the redoubtable "War Cry," which during 
the next seventeen years, although being the only religious 

69 



TO 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



or secular paper which does not deal in advertisements, 
achieved the phenomenal circulation of close upon a mil- 
lion copies a week. The newspaper history of the world 
does not present a parallel to so remarkable an achieve- 
ment. 

Nor is this all. The success of the "War Cry" led to 
the subsequent publication of various other weekly papers 
and monthly magazines, the most important of these 
being "The Young Soldier," "The Social Gazette," "All 
the World," the international organ of the foreign work 
of the Salvation Army; "The Deliverer," representing 
especially the progress of the Rescue work; "Victory" 
(Astralia), "Harbor Lights" (America), and "The Musical 
Salvationist," furnishing the Army with a limitless supply 
of new songs and tunes 

This spiritual armada, this immense flotilla of dumb and 
yet eloquent Salvationists, sweeps the world with its mes- 
sages of "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good- 
will toward men." Like Joel's countless army, "they run 
like mighty men; they climb upon the wall like men of 
war; they march every one in his ways and break not 
their ranks; neither does one thrust another (the spiritual, 
the social, the criminal, the missionary, the musical organs 
having each its separate and appropriate sphere); they 
walk every one in his path; and when they fall upon the 
sword they are not wounded; they run to and fro in the 
city; they run upon the wall; they climb up upon the 
houses; they enter in at the windows like a thief," and 
appear in places where the uniform of the Salvationist 
cannot yet be endured. 

Heralds of mercy and harbingers of hope, they link the 
palace with the garret and Heaven with both. "How 
beautiful upon the mountains" of sin and in the valleys of 
sorrow are these white-winged messengers of peace! 



CHAPTER XI. 



GENERAL BOOTH'S CHILDREN. 

The first regiment of the Salvation Army was the family 
of William and Catherine Booth. It was here that the 
entire movement was foreshadowed long before its origin- 
ators had themselves the remotest conception of its future 
character and extent. Each child was trained to be a 
soldier. The baby faces pressed against the window pane 
to watch the warrior father and mother start evening after 
evening for their spiritual battlefield. They would be 
awakened late in their little cots by the good night kiss 
and final tuck-in that sealed their return. The breakfast 
discussion would turn in the direction of the number of 
souls saved and the remarkable instances of conversion 
which had taken place upon the previous night. 

During the day-time the home would be turned into an 
office, the tables being covered with the General's letters, 
manuscripts, proof-sheets of articles and addresses, mingled 
with newly-cut garments and lesson books. Now a 
visitor had to be received, or a worker encouraged and 
prayed with. Mrs. Booth would pass from kitchen to 
nursery, and thence to parlor or study. At another 
moment her hands would be dipped in the flour for the 
home made bread, which somehow tasted so different when 
her quick, energetic fingers had plied the dough and made 
it pulsate with some of the electricity that throbbed 
through her life. 

Not too long at a time must she be away from the 
General's side or he would invade the kitchen with a pile 
of manuscript, seat himself upon the table and discuss 
the latest difficulty or proposed advance. 

Brought up in such an atmosphere, what wonder that the 
children soon caught the infection of the same spirit. Peep 

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GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



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GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



73 



into the nursery. The ringing merry voices can be heard 
almost a block away, for there is no stiff formality or 
prudery about this family. Ever and anon their occupa- 
tion is to preach and sing and pray, as they have seen their 
parents do. The dolls and pillows form a silent and atten- 
tive congregation, while one after another, the children 
address the audience. 

As they became older they were early drawn into the 
work. The greatest treat was to attend the meetings. 
Or perhaps greater still was their delight when they 
gathered in prayer around their mother's knee, and she 
poured out her soul to God on their behalf. Often the hot 
tears would pour down her cheeks and drop on their bowed 
heads and necks, creating sacred memories, still living, 
fresh and fragrant as of yesterday, though twenty years 
and more have come and gone ! 

Soon their young activities were directed towards the 
conversion of other children They would gather them 
from the neighborhood, pleading with them as tenderly, as 
eloquently and as effectively, although in child-language, 
as they had heard their parents deal with the senior 
crowds. 



WIIvIvIELIVl BRSMWELL BOOTH. 

Second only to General Booth in the Salvation Army 
of to day stands out the conspicuous figure of his eldest 
son, William Bramwell. In face he more resembles his 
mother than any other member of the family. He has 
inherited, also, in a large measure, her logical and analyt- 
ical ability, as well as her courage and remarkable ten- 
acity of purpose, while his scathing denunciations of sin, 
combined with his woman like compassion for the sinner, 
have peculiarly marked him as "his mother's son." 

From the age of fifteen he has assisted in no small 
measure in laying the foundations and raising the bulwarks 



74 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



of the movement. For the last twenty years he has occu- 
pied the position of Chief of the Staff, and during this 
long period of service in a sphere so fraught with anxiety 
and responsibility, no one has known "the Chief," as he is 
affectionately called by rank and file, to waver. However 
fierce might be the shock of battle, it has but served to 
throw into bolder relief his qualities as a wise counsellor 
and intrepid leader. When for weeks and even months 
at a time the General has been called away to visit the 
more distant fields of Army warfare he has left without 
hesitation the helm in these calm and sagacious hands. 
Seldom in history have father and son more beautifully 
co worked, and seldom has a Chief of the Staff more per- 
fectly interpreted the wishes, plans and aims of his com- 
manding officer. 

Endued by nature with exceptional intellectual powers, 
which enable him to grasp with equal ease vast economic 
problems together with the smallest minutiae of office work, 
— possessed of keen insight into human character, — as a 
speaker convincing, powerful, eloquent, — endeared to every 
prominent officer, alike by faithful counsel and tender con- 
sideration, — the figure of Bramwell Booth forms one of the 
most interesting backgrounds in the General's life, and 
one of the leading foregrounds in Salvation Army 
history. 

In 1882 Mr. Bramwell Booth married Miss Florence 
Soper, daughter of Doctor Soper, a prominent physician 
in Wales. Converted through the preaching of the late 
Catherine Booth, Miss Soper threw herself heart and soul 
into Army work, assisting the Mar^chale in her arduous 
fight in Paris. After her marriage she inaugurated the 
first Army Rescue Home for fallen women. These homes 
have multiplied from 1 to 74, four thousand five hundred 
women passing through them annually. The average 
proportion of those who are permanently restored to lives 
of virtue is more than 80 per cent, of those dealt with, 
while a vast number of others are temporarily assisted. 

Mrs. Bramwell Booth has also organized Nursing Bri- 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



75 



gades for the Slums and Homes for Servant Girls, together 
with several large Shelters for Women. 

Seven energetic children are following in the footsteps 
of their devoted parents. 



BffLUNGTON BOOTH. 

To General Booth's second son, Ballington, we regret 
that the painful occurrences of the past two years make it 
unwise that we should more than passingly refer. 

He was born at Brighouse in 1857. His first important 
command was Manchester, Engiand, where, in spite of 
serious riots he succeeded in establishing a successful work. 
Later he paid a short visit to Australia, and was married, 
upon his return, to Miss Maud Charlesworth, the daughter 
of a Church of England minister. 

After occupying for some time the position of Travel- 
ing Commissioner, he was appointed in 1887 to the com- 
mand of the work in the United States, where for the 
following nine years he and Mrs. Ballington Booth were 
used in carrying forward the Army's operations with 
much success. 

In January, 1896, Commander and Mrs. Ballington 
Booth resigned their connection with the Salvation Army 
and formed a separate organization, known as "The Volun- 
teers of America." 

The officers and soldiers of the Salvation Army, with 
very few exceptions, declined to take part in the secession, 
and, by the blessing of God, the work has gone forward 
uninterruptedly, despite the much lamented circum- 
stances, the officers having increased during this period 
from 2,000 to 2,450, and the annual number of con- 
verts from 35,000 to 60,000, while most encouraging 
and wide-sweeping social developments have taken 
place. 



76 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



CATHERINE BOOTH. 

Catherine, the eldest daughter of the General, now Mrs. 
Booth Clibborn, has attained a world wide reputation as 
4 'La Marechale" of France. Starting almost single-handed 
in Paris, she has been enabled to inaugurate a remarkable 
work through France and Switzerland, and is now success- 
fully engaged in directing the operations of the Army in 
Holland and Belgium. Energetic and enterprising as a 
leader and eloquent as a speaker both in French and 
English, her work has been singularly owned of God To 
her pioneer experiences on the Continent of Europe, and 
her heroic courage and fortitude, reference is made in 
another chapter. 

Her talented husband, Commissioner Arthur Booth 
Clibborn, has ably seconded her in her work, having sacri- 
ficed excellent worldly prospects to become a Salvationist. 
They have seven children, full of promise and capacity for 
future usefulness. 



MOSS BOOTH. 

Of the second daughter. Emuia Moss, it is difficult for 
me to write owing to my personal relationship. For 
although my own conviction cannot but be that any 
sketch 1 may draw of her character and work would fail 
to do her justice, I fear lest to others it may appear to 
savor of partiality. Should this be so, I must crave once 
more the forbearance of my readers; especially in view of 
the fact that she shares with me the leadership of our 
privileged sphere in the United States, rendering some 
reference to her life and work necessary. 

At the outset of her career Miss Emma Booth proved to 
be the most timid of the family, so far as public work was 
concerned. Behind the scenes there was no limit to her 
activities. From early days her mother's constant com- 
panion, in after years her father's frequent counsellor, her 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



77 



brothers' and sisters' guardian angel, it seemed that no 
new enterprise could be launched before her quick judg- 
ment had anticipated its difficulties and her executive 
ability had "shaped " and smoothed its "rough hewn 
ends," no song composed until its likelihood to "catch on'' 
and prove "singable" had been submitted to her test. 
After the finishing touch had been given, or the plan 
settled, no more was to be heard or seen of the gentle, 
graceful helper, who thought her life work was to assist 
others in doing better, while remaining unknown herself. 
Even when the duty of training the women warriors of the 
Salvation Army was thrust upon her, but little was known 
outside the limits of the Training Home, with its two and 
three hundred cadets, of its "Mother " Inside the Home, 
the very ground she trod was worshiped by the girls, who 
learned to love and value their leader none the less that 
she hid her toil beneath the bushel of their deeds 

But the light could not always remain hidden. It 
burnt its way through each modest, self- forgetful covering, 
and soon the rush of battle carried Emma Moss Booth to 
the foremost places in the field. She discovered that Grod 
had a message for her to give in public as well as private, 
that He had gifted her with a voice that could ring its 
way through the largest building, and with talents that 
she dared no longer hide. 

Called subsequently to India as a Salvation Army mis- 
sionary, to walk barefooted 'mid its heathen hosts, then 
withdrawn for two years from the public field to minister 
with tender solicitude to the mother whose life had 
become so intimately interwoven with her own, while pass 
ing through the long bleak valley of her final illness, and 
at length launched upon the stormy waters that were 
threatening for the moment to engulf our noble American 
bark, she has already won for herself a warm corner in the 
hearts of those whom it is her pleasure and her privilege 
to serve. 

In 1888 she was married to the writer of this memoir, 
who had seven years previously, resigned his position in 



rs 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



the Indian Civil Service to become a Salvation Army 
officer. Their family consists of two boys and two girls. 



HERBERT HOWARD BOOTH. 

The genius of the Booth children was perhaps in 
nothing more remarkable than in the dissimilarities of its 
manifestation. The strict discipline of the home did not 
mean that each child was to be made into a facsimile of the 
other. Whilst in the sight of each goodness was exalted far 
above ability, and all were made to feel that a learned or 
gifted sinner was no more to be admired than an ignorant 
or foolish one, yet in the interests of undying souls, every 
talent was wisely watched over, encouraged, guided and 
developed. 

Herbert soon signalized himself as the strategist and 
musician-poet of the family. The wonderful genius of the 
General for handling large bodies of people and for 
creating an effective fighting force, which should carry 
out campaigns with the same simultaneous promptitude 
and precision as characterized an ordinary army, marked 
his various commands in Grreat Britain, Canada and 
Australia. Among his best known musical compositions 
are "Victory for Me," and "The Penitent's Plea," while 
among his hymn3 to old familiar tunes are "Blessed Lord, 
in Thee is Refuge," "Cleansing for Me," and "The Blood 
of Jesus Cleanses White as Snow." 

In 1890 he married Miss Corn61ie Shoch, the daughter 
of Major Shoch, formerly an officer in the Dutch army, 
and for many years an ardent Salvationist. Another 
sister in this talented family is married to Commissioner 
Oliphant, who has charge of our work in Sweden. A third 
sister is married to Major Malan, the Italian officer who 
traveled through the United States with General Booth 
during his last visit, while a fourth sister is married to 
Major Roussel> and shares with him the command of our 
work in Grerman Switzerland. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



79 



Mrs. Herbert Booth has won for herself golden opinions, 
both in Canada and Australia, by her rapid and successful 
extension of Rescue Homes for fallen women and her 
Children's Home in Toronto. She is a brilliant pianist, 
and her musical compositions have contributed some 
graceful additions to Salvation Army hymnology. 

Commandant Herbert Booth is an ardent sociologist, 
and has launched successfully several farm colonies to- 
gether with many institutions for the city poor. They 
have three children, all boys. 



MARIAN BOOTH. 

Miss Marian Booth, the third daughter, has been pre 
vented by her delicate constitution from taking an active 
part in the public work of the Salvation Army. Never- 
theless, she is an earnest worker, toils ceaselessly amongst 
the children behind the scenes, and has no interests sepa- 
rate from those of the Army. She makes her home with 
Consul Mrs. Booth- Tucker, in New York. 



EV75. CORY BOOTH. 

Among the most dashing and heroic of the Salvation 
Army leaders throughout the world, is Eva Cory Booth, 
the fourth daughter of the General. She has gained 
a warm place in the hearts of her comrades by her 
courageous presence in numerous riots, which, under God, 
she has been the means of quelling. Her first command, 
as she was emerging from girlhood, was that of a large 
hall situated in one of the slummiest quarters of London. 
Many a night would she rush into the street to separate 
the combatants in some drunken brawl. Her mastery of 
the tough element that crowded her meetings excited the 



80 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



surprise of the late orator John Bright, as he watched 
from a corner of the building, an unknown but none the 
less interested spectator. Dressed in slum costume Miss 
Booth was introduced to the chairman of Lord Onslow's 
committee when investigating the progress of the Darkest 
England Scheme, and thrilled its members with her stories 
of slum life 

The Salvation Army operations in the metropolis of 
London were placed for several years under the charge of 
Miss Booth, while she is well known and loved in New 
York, Chicago and other cities of the United States, where 
she has conducted successful campaigns. She is now in 
charge of the work in Canada, where a most satisfactory 
progress is being sustained. 



LUCY MILWaRD BOOTH. 

The youngest member of the family, Lucy Milward, 
won her earliest laurels in charge of the Clapton Training 
Home. Later the arduous command of the heathen in 
India called into play both her spirit of self-sacrifice and 
her administrative ability 

In 1894 she married Commissioner Emanuel Hellberg, 
who had been for several years second in command of 
the Swedish war, and who joined her in the leadership of 
India, A graduate of the well known University at 
Upsala, and master of four of the principal European 
languages, possessed of great executive and platform abil 
ity, Commissioner Booth Hellberg has proved an able 
coadjutor to his gifted wife. They are now in command 
of the work in France and Switzerland. Mrs. Booth- 
Hellberg has contributed several beautiful compositions to 
Army hynmology. The best known of these are 4 'Keep on 
Believing" and "While the Light from Heaven is Falling." 
Commissioner and Mrs. Booth Hellberg's first little one 
was a martyr to the Indian climate. They have one baby 
daughter living. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND. 

From its earliest inception General Booth has striven 
to make the Salvation Army the Church of the churchless, 
the home of the homeless, the friend of the working 
man, the champion of the workless, the reformer of the 
worthless, "the fold of the black sheep," as it has some 
times not inappropriately been called ! With a view to 
reaching the otherwise unreachable masses, the General 
chose for his cathedral the open-air, for his parish the 
lost sheep of humanity. Leaving to the care of others 
those who might be regarded as be ing safely folded within 
the bosom of their respective churches, he consecrated 
himself, his family and his organization to the service of 
the submerged masses of mankind, and devoted his all to 
the spiritual "iVo Man's Land," which was the increasing 
despair of those who were the most sincerely interested in 
the welfare of their country's poor. 

It was not uncommon to post over the entrance of some 
of his early meeting places a request that respectable per- 
sons should stay away, in order that those for whose 
special benefit the meetings were intended might feel per- 
fectly at home The "free and easy" services were of such 
a character that no matter how poorly a man might be 
clad, he did not feel in the least awkward or unwelcome. 
It was not unusual, indeed it is not to the present day, for 
the Captain to strip off his coat and "pitch in" in his shirt 
sleeves. If a special inspiration seized him to tuck them 
up elbow high there was nobody to say him nay. It was 
intensely realistic. The Captain was going to have a prize 
fight with the devil, the stake consisted of immortal souls, 
and before the encounter ended there were usually some 

81 



83 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



rough, drink-sodden sinners kneeling at the penitent- 
form. 

But while the spiritual side of this warfare was main- 
tained with ever increasing vigor the pitiable surroundings 
of the submerged masses among whom he labored continu- 
ally forced upon the General's attention the question as to 
whether something could not be done, and this on a large 
scale, for removing the moral and physical stumbling 
blocks to their salvation. 

It was true that large numbers of them had sunk into 
their deplorable condition through their own thriftless- 
ness or drunken habits. But it was equally true that 
the majority had fallen into the pit through no fault 
of their own. They were the mere creatures of circum- 
stances, having been, as one writer has well expressed it, 
"damned" into the world rather than "born" into it. But 
from whatever cause they might have become engulfed in 
this moral pandemonium it was equally true of all that to 
escape was well nigh impossible. The rat-trap of humanity 
was furnished with ample means for ingress, but those who 
might think to escape through the same opening by which 
they had entered found it guarded with piercing points 
which rendered egress impossible. 

After depicting in lurid language the terrible condition 
of affairs, which twenty-five years' intimate contact with 
the poor had brought before his notice, the General pro- 
ceeded in his historic treatise, "In Darkest England and 
the Way Out," to sketch a vast and comprehensive plan 
for the deliverance of the submerged. 

It was no mere Utopia that was pictured in the General's 
volume. Every page was crowded with practical sug- 
gestions, which commended themselves to the judgment of 
the business man. Here the experienced statesman could 
not fail to see a platform for the gradual betterment of the 
national life. The philanthropist felt his large heart 
throb with a new hope, The religious leader discovered 
that by planting the cross of Christ upon the Calvary 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



83 



of human woe its rays might yet penetrate the darkest 
hearts. 

The plan in brief was threefold: 

1. The City Colony, consisting of a variety of institu- 
tions for dealing with the submerged in the cities, afford- 
ing them such work and temporary relief as might be 
possible. This agency was to include cheap shelters and 
food depots for the working classes, labor bureaux 
for the registering of the unemployed, woodyards and 
factories where they could be supplied with temporary 
work, prison gate homes for ex-criminals, rescue homes 
for fallen women, and a net work of similar agencies, 
which would palliate the condition of the poor and help 
them to recover their character (if lost) and their position 
in society. 

2. In connection with the City Colony the General pro- 
posed to establish Suburban Farm Colonies of an industrial 
character in the vicinity of the large cities, to which the poor 
could be drafted, and where they could receive a simple 
agricultural training, thus relieving the cities of their con- 
gested population. 

3. The final link in the chain was to be what may be 
termed ''Homestead Colonies,'" where the working man 
was to be enabled to possess his own cottage and tract of 
land. In connection with the British scheme this was 
termed the "Oversea Colony," from the fact that it was 
proposed to obtain vast tracts of land to which the trained 
and sifted colonists from the Suburban Colonies could be 
transplanted, To obtain such regions in the United King- 
dom was obviously impossible. Hence, after careful 
inquiries among the various British Colonies, it was 
decided to give the preference to Western Australia, where 
14,000 acres of land have already been obtained. 

It may be well here to mention that at the inception of 
the scheme some inquiries were made by General Booth as 
to whether it would be possible or desirable to locate such 
a Colony in the TJniteci States, but as soon as he had ascer- 



84 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



tained that such would be contrary to the sentiment of 
public opinion the suggestion was immediately abandoned 
Indeed it was decided from an eariy date that the Oversea 
Colony for the British poor must be located in some 
country under the British flag So strongly did General 
Booth leel on this question that an offer of 1,000,000 acres 
under favorable conditions in South America was declined 
some years ago. Hence the recent plan for colonizing the 
poor of the large cities of the United States in the West 
and South does not and never has contemplated the intro 
duction of British immigrants to this country. 

Barely seven years have elapsed since the publication 
of "Darkest England." In this brief period the plan has 
been reduced to practice and almost every country in the 
world is dotted with these various agencies for good. 

Speaking of the British branch, "Progress,"' the newly- 
published report for 1897, gives the following interesting 
figures: 

THE SOCIHL WORK IN ENGLAND 



Cheap shelters at from two to twelve cents 1,553,000 

Cheap meals at half a cent and upwards 3,154,000 

Unemployed registered at Labor Bureau 14,700 

Employment (temporary and permanent) found 

for 12,000 

Applications for lost friends 1,800 

Lost persons found 700 

Fallen girls received in Rescue Homes 1,986 

Sent to friends, situations and otherwise cared 

for (including 353 remaining in Homes) 1,785 

Unsatisfactory cases 201 

Ex-criminals received 633 

Sent to situations or restored to friends 545 



The total turnover of the British Social operations last 
year amounted to $680 ; 000, the total working expenses to 
the charitable public being only $65 : 000, exclusive of 
money spent on buildings and other capital outlay. Ninety 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



85 



per cent, of the money spent on the poor was received 
back from them, either in money or in goods produced by 
their labor. The cost of supervision including, legal, 
medical and other professional charges, was less than 3 per 
cent. 

Among the most interesting features of the Social 
operations in England is the Farm Colony at the mouth 
of the Thames. It is thus described by Sir Walter Besant 
in an eloquent article contributed to the December num- 
ber of the Contemporary Review . 

"I was standing on a gentle slope rising slowly out of 
the uncompromising levels of the Essex marsh and the 
mud of the foreshore. Beside me stood up against the 
clouds the shapeless ruins of an old castle; behind me were 
the orchards of a four years' growth, their harvest over, 
their work for the season done; at my feet the ebb tide 
had left the expanse of mud bare and wet, glittering here 
and there with strange gleams of light; behind the mud 
lay Canvey Island, its flat meadows seeming lower even 
than the mud of the low tide; beyond Canvey rolled the 
broad river on which the ships go up and down all the day 
and all the year round; beyond the river one could see 
the mouth of the Med way and the low cliffs of the Kentish 
shore. The ebb was quite finished; the autumn sky was 
grey, but brightened by the frequent appearance of a 
cloudy and shaded sun, as of a lamp with a gauze upon it; 
this coming and going of the sun caused that glittering of 
the mud and drew those silver lines across the levels, All 
these surroundings — the strange prospect of a stretch of 
bare mud that was not unlovely, the gleams of light, the 
splendid river, the father of wealth and fosterer of 
industry, the blue hills in the distance- -suited the place 
and mood called up by the place, and the meaning of the 
place. For here, around me, were the ruins of an aban- 
doned past; here was a new life springing up; here were 
hapless dreary, sorrowful stretches of barren mud, yet 
touched with light; here, though the sky was overcast, 



96 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



the colors of earth and air and water were tinged with a 
gentle melancholy; though the very light of day was sad. 
yet the sunlight intervened, and the clouds, if you looked 
up, were slowly, slowly falling away to the west, leaving 
in the east the promise of a golden rose of dawn. 

"For this place was none other than the Farm Colony, 
the Farm of Hadleigh, part of the great scheme of General 
Booth, of wbich the world has heard so much, of which the 
world, as yet, understands so little. 

•'When they first come down they are mostly in weak 
health: they know nothing about the work of agriculture; 
they cannot properly handle a spade; their work— this 
must be borne in mind — for some months means a dead 
loss to the farm. Presently, under the stimulus of good 
food, regular hours, and fine air, they put on strength; 
they learn how to work; under the influence of example, 
of friendliness, and of kindness they become good workers. 
You will not find on any farm a body of laborers who work 
with better will than these fellows on the Essex 'colony.' 
Remember what they were— the wrecks of London, the 
wastrels of the great city, the helpless, hopeless wretches 
whom prison cannot reform, whom the church does not 
touch. Now talk to them; look at them; their self-respect 
has come back ; they are men once more; what the turnkey 
and the policeman cannot do the farm has done; they are 
'converted' in a sense which the General does not mean; 
they are converted from disorder to order, from waste to 
work, from crime to honesty — a conversion notable indeed. 

"The gain to the country of every single case can never 
be estimated, can never bo measured by any standard; it 
is the gain of one more useful life; it is the gain of an 
example; it is the gain of children and grandchildren — 
one knows not how far and wide the gain may reach — 
brought up in honesty, with the example of honesty and 
temperance ; it is the gain of one more man on the side of 
order; it is the gain of infinite possibilities in the direction 
of good rather than evil. These gains can never be set 
down in figures or estimated by dollars. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH;. 



87 



"This, then, is some of the work attempted by the 
remarkable man who has created the Salvation Army and 
all that belongs to it, The attempt has been made on a 
gigantic scale; the cases treated run into many thousands'; 
the work is carried on all over the world." 

And after a powerful tribute to the strength of some of 
the underlying principles upon which the Salvation Army 
as a whole has been built up, he proceeds. 

"Theirs is a mission to go down, down, down among 
the depths where there is ever a lower depth still; theirs is 
the task to raise the worst and the most hopeless. At 
present I am firmly convinced they are moved one and all 
by the most sincere pity, the most real and pure passion 
of pity, for the outcasts of the world. They are ruled by 
an organization which seeks to produce its results by per- 
sonal service, self-denial, enthusiasm and sympathy. They 
are controlled and regulated by a system and an order 
which I cannot find in any other institution in the world. 
To me it has been for many years an ever increasing 
delight to watch this society growing, developing, inventing 
and creating, in every direction of humanitarian effort. " 



THE SOC1SL WORK THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 

The latest figures to hand concerning the world wide 
operations of the Social scheme give the following remark- 



able results: 

Number of Shelters and Food Depots 79 

Persons sheltered nightly, about 12,000 

Labor Bureaux 29 

Woodyards and workshops 44 

Slum posts 86 

Prison- Gate Homes for ex-Criminals 12 

Ex-Criminals passed through during the year 2,190 

Rescue Homes for fallen women 74 

Passed through annually more than 4,000 

Total institutions of various sorts 413 

Total officers and employees in charge 1,300 



S8 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



THE SOCIAL WORK IN THE UNITED STATES. 

During the year 1897 rapid advances have been made in 
the United States: 

1896. 1897. 



Food and Shelter Depots 3 80 

Rescue Homes 5 12 

Woodyards, etc 4 10 

Salvage Brigades 5 

Labor Bureaux 5 

Slum Posts 13 16 

Miscellaneous Institutions 3 7 

Total Social Institutions. 28 85 

Accommodation 630 4,500 



Among the special new departures of the year have 
been: 

1. A Homestead Colony of 500 acres in California, where 
thirty families, consisting of nearly 200 souls, have been 
settled on ten- acre tracts of land A Citizens' Committee, 
which includes the Mayor of San Francisco, ex Mayor 
Ellert, and about thirty other prominent citizens, is 
warmly co operating in this work. 

2. A Slum and Maternity Brigade has been established 
in New York under the leadership of an experienced 
officer. 

3. Salvage Brigades collect the household waste in 
several large cities, the sale of the material finding work 
and a living for nearly 100 men in Greater New York 

4 A small Hospital has been established in Topeka and 
a Chinese Hospital in San Francisco. 

5 A Home for Young Women employed in offices and 
stores has been placed under our charge in Los Angeles. 

6. Providing Christmas Cheer for no less than 80,000 
persons in the principal cities of the United States. 

During the year 1897 about 1 000 000 cheap shelters were 
provided for the working classes. The accommodation 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



89 



has recently been increased, providing at the time of writ- 
ing (January, 1898), at the rate of 1,650,000 shelters annu- 
ally. Still further additions are now under consideration 
in connection with General Booth's visit to the States, It 
is his desire that the city institutions alone should have 
their nightly capacity increased to 10,000, in addition to 
which extensive propositions are under consideration for a 
chain of Homestead Colonies, three separate offers having 
been already received for loans of $25,000 each, for the 
settlement of fifty families on ten-acre tracts of iand. 

One of the most interesting efforts recently put forth 
by the Salvation Army in the United States was the 
undertaking to land and find work for four hundred 
Armenian refugees. Jointly with the Hon John E. Mil 
holland, bonds were signed for $100,000 that they should 
not become a charge on the public. Within a week of 
landing the entire party was scattered in small batches 
throughout the country and provided with work. Not 
one of them has become a public charge. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



GENERAL BOOTH AS AN ORGANIZER. 

"Look at any store or factory, employing say one thou- 
sand hands," remarked General Booth one day. "Wherein 
consists its success? The people employed are much on a 
level with the crowds outside. Nine hundred and ninety 
of them are probably only endowed with average intelli- 
gence. But you will find among them a handful of brainy 
men, possibly not more than ten or twelve, who possess 
exceptional capacity. Frequently there is but one keen, 
energetic brain behind it all. The nine hundred and 
ninety persons avail themselves of the intellectual powers 
which they do not themselves possess, and practically they 
are in as good a position as if they were the actual owners 
of them. Let these same powers of brain and energy be 
consecrated to the service of God and humanity, and you 
have the exact condition of things which is likely to result 
in the greatest good to the greatest number." 

It has been on this principle that the Salvation Army 
has been organized. Devotion and ability have been the 
twin key-notes of successful leadership. Mere goodness 
without capacity may qualify a man to become a saint and 
martyr, but cannot, by itself, designate him to become a 
leader. A foolish saint may, and often has, landed himself 
and those who have been unwise enough to follow him, in 
the ditch. Mere heroism, of itself, will not win battles, 
though it may carry its possessor to the cannon's mouth. 

On the other hand, unsanctified ability will usually 
sidetrack its owner in one or other of the by-paths of 
selfishness, where spiritual shipwreck is equally certain, 
even though for the time being worldly prosperity may 
attend the effort. 

90 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



91 



By placing personal gains, personal interests and per- 
sonal preferences on the altar of humanity the founder of 
the Salvation Army has created an organization in which 
all the advantages of skilled leadership have been com- 
bined with those of multiplicity of individual effort. 

Nor has this been accomplished at the sacrifice of in- 
dividualism. Like Napoleon, the General may boast that 
not only every man, but every woman carries in their 
knapsack a marshal's baton. Let him but prove his divine 
call and qualifications by his success, and there is not a 
position in the Salvation Army which does not open up 
before him. Sheer merit, linked to godliness, is the sole 
passport needed for the humblest soldier in the ranks to 
climb to its highest post. A converted chimney sweep 
and collier boy are among its prominent leaders. It is true 
that not a few officers have stepped into its ranks from the 
proud halls of learning or the homes of wealth. Never- 
theless the majority have emerged from the compar- 
ative obscurity of every day working class life, and many 
from its humblest ranks. But the uniformity of plan, the 
unity of action, and the universality qf application of the 
simple principles embodied in the Army, have enabled it 
to accomplish results which would otherwise have been 
impossible. 

At an early period in his ministry, General Booth recog- 
nized the value of organized action. Indeed there was 
scarcely a day from the time of his conversion that he did 
not act upon it. Individual efforts were all very well in 
their way, but to accomplish great results it was necessary, 
he foresaw, to secure the combined action which organiz- 
ation and method could alone render possible. This, he 
readily perceived, lay at the root of the lasting character 
of Wesley's work, as compared with the more evanescent 
effects of Whitfield's preaching. 

Hence every department of the Salvation Army has 
been most carefully and systematically organized, regula- 
tions being drawn up for each, and altered from time to 
time as experience might dictate. 



92 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



In the drawing up of these rules the General has invari 
ably associated with himself the principal officers in each 
country and department concerned. When the first draft 
has not been prepared in this way, -the outline has been 
invariably submitted to them, and the frankest criticism 
has been courted. In fact the regulations of the Army are 
nothing more than the concentrated experience of its 
ablest, most devoted and successful officers. 

The bulk of these orders are published in a volume of 
700 pages, known as " The Field Officer," containing 
instructions of a detailed character. This book is of a 
monumental character. While never intended for the 
public, it is perfectly accessible to all, and it has been 
made a part of the regular curriculum in not a few theo- 
logical institutions. As a specimen of insight and sagacity, 
vigor and perspicuity it could hardly be surpassed, whilst 
it would be almost impossible to imagine a man being 
a failure who lived up to the spirit and carried out the 
letter of its instructions 

Subsidiary codes of regulations have been drawn up for 
the guidance of Commanders of territories, for Staff Offi- 
cers, for Officers in charge of Social operations among the 
poor, for Bandsmen and others 

In addition to the above and with a view to keeping 
every department thoroughly up to date in regard to all 
the most recent advances of the Army, two magazines are 
published monthly for the special guidance of officers 
and sergeants, containing instructions and suggestions 
which could not be very well included in the War Cry, and 
which would be of little or no interest to the general 
public. Thus each link in the chain is riveted to the next 
with a care and attention to the minutest detail, which 
could not be exceeded in any business corporation or 
national organization, and thus the magnetism of General 
Booth's personal influence, inspired and controlled by the 
Holy Spirit, is spread over a vast area and makes its 
influence felt in thousands of localities where he has been 
neither seen nor heard. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE GENERAL AS A PREACHER. 

Apart altogether from his gifts as a great religious 
leader, an organizer and a writer, General Booth is un- 
doubtedly one of the most remarkable preachers of the 
day. 

In appearance he carries one back to the old-time 
prophets. The silvery, flowing patriarchal beard, the 
arched nose, the piercing eyes, the lifted hand, make the 
listener almost imagine that he is face to face with a 
modern Moses or Elijah, 

The strongly- marked features betoken the rock-like 
firmness which has made William Booth one of nature's 
generals. Lord Wolseley is reported to have said that 
there was only one man in the world without a military 
training whom he would like to have as his chief of the 
staff, and that was General Booth— that he had mis- 
taken his calling and ought to have been a military 
leader. But the same qualities which would have gained 
him distinction on the battlefields of the world have been 
no less valuable to him in the life work to which he has 
consecrated himself. And it is when charging down upon 
the hosts of Hell and thundering forth his denunciations 
of sin that the General may be seen at his best. At such 
times, when watching the vast multitudes swayed by his 
eloquence, now rippling forth in smiles under some keen 
sally of wit, and again hushed into death-like silence by 
some solemn appeal, one is tempted to wish that he spent 
his entire life on the platform in heart-to-heart touch 
with the needy multitudes. 

But it is not merely as an evangelist that the General is 
a great and effective speaker. His ability to suit himself 

93 



94 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



to the requirements of every class of audience constitutes 
one of his greatest powers. And it is in addressing his 
councils of officers or soldiers, that he is perhaps to be 
seen most in his element When meeting his officers it is 
no unusual thing for him to speak for three or four con- 
secutive days for nine hours at a stretch, with but brief 
intervals for rest and food. Do his audiences grow weary? 
Never is such a thing known! The various phases of the 
work are brought forward, and the weak points dealt with 
in such a fashion — manifesting such a complete mastery 
of the subject, as to rivet the attention of all. 

Similarly, with his public audiences, whether it be 
all days of preaching or all nights of prayer, interest 
never flags in the meetings which are conducted by the 
General. 

If it be asked in what respect his preaching differs from 
that of many others, I should be inclined to say that it is 
in aiming after definite and immediate results. To make 
every sinner into a saint, e^ery saint into a soldier of the 
cross, and every soldier into a successful saviour of souls is 
the direct object of every spiritual meeting conducted by 
General Booth. 

Each campaign is planned with the expectation of 
such results. Souls must be saved, backsliders must be 
restored, professing Christians must be stirred up to action, 
soldiers must be enrolled or the campaign would be re- 
garded as a miserable failure, however vast might be the 
crowds or deep the interest. 

And the spirit of its leader pervades the entire Salva- 
tion Army. Each officer and soldier measures his success 
by the results that he is enabled to accomplish. And 
hence there knelt in 1897 at the penitent form no less than 
60,000 persons in the United States, while throughout the 
world more than 270,000 come forward annually in this 
public manner to seek salvation. When to these direct 
results is added the Army's indirect influence upon the 
Christian Church at large, it will readily be gathered how 
vast is the work that God is pleased to accomplish as a 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



95 



result of the soul stirring appeals and life-example of 
General Booth. 

In regard to preparation, there are few who might be 
more justified in trusting to the inspiration of the mo- 
ment, and none probably who could more reasonably 
plead an uninterrupted tide of work as an excuse for 
doing so. And yet it is doubtful whether, considering the 
continuous public speaking undertaken, there is a preacher 
of any notoriety who bestows more pains, not in mere 
verbiage, but in thinking out his subject, and in suiting it 
to the need and comprehension of his audience. 

As a doctrinarian General Booth belongs to the stern 
old school. He believes every word of the Bible just as it 
stands. "Higher Criticism" possesses no attraction for 
him. Modern skepticism has not so much as touched him 
with its finger tips. 

In his early days he became an enthusiastic disciple of 
John Wesley. "There is one God, and John Wesley is His 
prophet," was his Christian "kalima," which he repeated 
with almost the fervor of a Mahommedan. The fiery 
exhortations and logical reasonings of the two great 
American apostles, Caughey and Finney, helped to shape 
his theological training. 

Like all three of the above he is an intense believer in 
Hell. The all mercy and no justice, the all reward and no 
punishment form of Gospel neither commends itself to 
his judgment, nor seems to him to tally with the teachings 
of the Bible. The stern truths of the law are in his estima- 
tion as important for the convicting of sinners as are the 
merciful proclamations of the Gospel for their salvation. 
The two he believes to be indissolubly united. You can- 
not do away with the one without destroying the very 
foundations of the other. Let the wickedness of sin and 
the terrible nature of its punishment be minimized and 
you do away with the very reason for the Gospel and make 
needless the sacrifice of Calvary. 

"Let your preaching: have some teeth," he will say to 
his officers. "Convict your hearers of the terrible nature 



96 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



of sin, convince them of their guilt, flash before their con- 
sciences the terrors of Hell, and then display to them the 
glories of the bleeding Lamb. Have nothing to do with 
the namby-pamby Gospel of the day, which is no better 
than a toothless lion, and which does not even possess its 
terrorizing roar." The Gfospel according to the apostles, 
the Puritan Fathers, the martyrs of old, with all their 
literal acceptance of its teachings is good enough for 
William Booth. If the old wine is placed in a new 
pitcher it is the old wine still, undiluted with modern 
waterings. If the priceless treasure of the Gospel is 
encased within a latter-day casket, it is the same treasure 
still. 

"No need for anyone to be damned," has been the sum 
and substance of his proclamations, "but if you are 
damned, be assured that God means what He says, 
and it will be forever. If you rebel during your day of 
grace you will rebel during your day of punishment, 
and your damnation will be as everlasting as your re- 
bellion." 

To some it may appear as if the stern denunciations of 
the preacher were better suited to more primitive times, 
but the very contrast between it and the ordinary easy- 
going theology of the day makes it more possible to study 
and compare their 'respective results. On the one hand 
behold a host of desperate men and women, living holy 
and consecrated lives, with the glimmer of a real eternity 
of weal or woe illuminating their lives and spurring them 
on to ever increased activity. On the other hand is it not 
equally true that the shadows of time envelop to the very 
borders of the grave those who are led to put their trust in 
a Gospel which will sooner or later land them in Heaven, 
whatever be their deeds below? Sacrifice illumines the 
one as surely as selfishness darkens the other. 

Compare their death beds if you will! "The waters are 
rising, but so am I! I shall not go under, but over!" 
Thus triumphantly wrote the Mother of the Salvation 
Army a few hours before she passed to her reward! In 




rHC GENERAL IN 1567. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



lurid contrast behold the speechless worldling, although a 
professing Christian, as, grasping pencil and paper, he 
writes with one supreme effort his mournful epitaph — 
"My life has been a failure!" and then falls back a corpse 
in the arms of his attendants ! 



4 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE GENERAL AS A WRITER. 

Whenever the General is not speaking, a pen is always 
in his hand, and it is the pen of a ready writer, which • 
catches and flings on to paper in the simplest, purest 
Anglo-Saxon the burning thoughts which course perpetu- 
ally through his brain. 

As in his home, his personal habits, his sermons, his 
interviews, so with his writing, the General abhors all 
straining after effect or flowers of rhetoric — "falderals " as 
he disdainfully calls them. And yet his articles, like his 
speeches, rivet his audiences, carrying them on from point 
to point with mingled smiles and tears. 

The infinite capacity for trouble and attention to detail 
which distinguishes the General as an organizer mark also 
his writings. As a rule his practice is first to prepare 
an outline of his proposed paper or book. He then dictates 
the substance of what he wishes to say to one or more 
shorthands, with instructions, should it be of an important 
character, to leave plenty of margin for corrections. Every 
line is then carefully revised with his own hand, the result 
being that the first edition of the book, pamphlet or 
article is scarcely recognizable in the second. After being 
again typewritten it will frequently be subjected to a third 
and fourth scrutiny, in addition to which, if the subject 
be one of more than ordinary importance it will be sub- 
mi cted for the suggestions of Mr. Bramwell Booth or some 
other prominent officers previous to publication. 

In this connection the General is fond of referring to 
the famous passage in Dickens which was seventeen times 
revised before it satisfied the author. 

98 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



99 



Equally painstaking was the late Catherine Booth. 
"Ah," she said to one of her children, speaking on this 
same subject, "you will never succeed as your father and 
mother have done, not because you do not possess the 
same talent, but because you will not take the same 
trouble. 1 ' Burke's definition of genius as "a capacity to 
take trouble" was often upon her lips. 

The subject matter of the General's writings is as 
diversified as the vast field of the Army's operations. 
With his finger on its world- pulse, turning his telescope 
to every corner of its battlefield, the notes of warning or 
encouragement peal forth from his watch-tower according 
to the varying needs of the occasion. But his watch-tower 
moves with him wherever he goes, in his incessant travel- 
ings from country to country. He gleans his information 
or learns his lesson on the field, and then pours it on to 
paper for the benefit of his legion followers. 

There is nothing of the mere theoretician about him. 
Everything is intensely practical. Hence he does not feel 
like wasting so much as the dot of an "i" or the cross of a 
"t" on needless doctrinal or Biblical discussions. He would 
fain economize the very drops of ink that flow from his 
small armory of fountain pens and bend every energy in 
the direction of practical instruction and result. 

With his writing as with his speaking, the General 
devotes a large share of his attention to the oificers and 
soldiers of the Army, and to perfecting the weak spots in 
the machinery and spirituality of the organization. He 
loves to discover and grapple with their difficulties for 
them or rather to show them how to do it for themselves 
His "Training of Children'' is a masterpiece, while "Salva- 
tion Soldiery" teems with burning exhortations to holi- 
ness. 

"Tell me the black side," the General will often say. 
"I will take all the white for granted." And then with all 
the energy of his being, he will bring to bear upon the 
knotty point the accumulated experience of many years 
with a view to devising some suitable remedv, 



100 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



It was this faculty of diving into difficulties that doubt 
less gave birth to the volume which has served to render 
the General famous as a writer on sociological questions 
throughout the world "Darkest England" was but a pic 
ture of the dismal scenes which he had witnessed with his 
own eyes, and of the sad stories which his officers were 
constantly pouring into his ears. 

Compelled by the dangerous and painful character of 
Mrs. Booth's malady to spend a considerable part of the last 
two years of her life at her side in the valley of the shadow 
of death, the General focused all his power of soul and 
mind on devising the monumental "Way Out" of this 
modern Egypt which it has since been his life study to 
put into operation. 

The piles of MSS were carried backwards and forwards 
as suffering would permit, across the narrow passage which 
divided the General's study from the room where the dying 
warrior was awaiting with marvellous courage and faith- 
inspired strength her final home call. As her life-sun sank 
beneath its horizon the last rays helped to fling flashes of 
inspiration and hope upon the heart and mind of him who 
for more than forty years had been accustomed to turn to 
her for light and help Perhaps it was only in the gloam- 
ing of such a death that such a book could have been 
penned, while who can tell what manner of comfort was 
brought to the heart of her who had never from her girl- 
hood looked upon a wrong without endeavoring to right 
it, or seen a tear without seeking to wipe it away. 

The conception of such a scheme could not have failed 
to immortalize its author as a thinker, the committal of it 
to paper in such simple yet vigorous language could not 
have failed to signalize him as a writer, but the carrying of 
the vast programme into operation, and the demonstration 
of its practicability by an enormous object-lesson in the face 
of all the world, has invested General Booth with the triple 
halo of philosopher, author and statesman, and has brought 
within the range of practical politics a simple remedy for 
the sufferings of the submerged masses of mankind. 



CHAPTER XVL 



THE GENERAL AT HOME. 

That is just where you will very seldom succeed in find- 
ing General Booth! Half his time is spent abroad. Even 
this does not imply by any means that the other half is 
spent at home. Quite the contrary. Expeditions to Scot- 
land, Ireland, Wales, the English Provinces, the Farm 
Colony at the mouth of the Thames, inspection of build 
ings, interviews \vith statesmen, councils with officers, all 
days of meetings, intermingled with all nights of prayer, 
serve perpetually to exile the General from what, never- 
theless, he still loves to look upon as "home." 

Perhaps it is because the shadow of departed love 
hovers around the simple, unadorned abode — that love 
which in its dying agony found time to think and plan for 
the home-nest where the weary wings might at times be 
folded and the much coveted privacy from public glare 
might be obtained 

Within an hour's rail ride from the International Head- 
quarters, a few minutes' walk from the station, yet just far 
enough away not to be disturbed by the racket of the 
trains, the simple home of General Booth peeps from 
behind the modest shrubbery which screens it from the 
road. 

The study where the Moltke of the religious world 
devises his plans and commits most of them to paper, 
besides holding many of his confidential councils with his 
heads of department and territorial commanders, overlooks 
a small garden at the back of the house. For it must not 
be supposed that home for one solitary working hour 
means to the veteran warrior idleness, nor even the dig- 
nified repose to which his public labors might well entitle 

101 



102 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



him. His official duties concluded, Lord Bacon used to 
say, as he laid aside his gown, "Lie there, Lord Chancel 
lor !" But not so with General Booth. His home is but 
another bivouac — an elevated peak from which he may 
behold his marching legions and may better direct their 
forward march There is little time for domesticities, 
though few men living enjoy them more than the General. 
True, his eldest son, Bramwell, with his devoted wife, live 
just across the way, and a miniature brigade of bright, 
intelligent, happy grandchildren, whose special treat is a 
turn-by- turn breakfast or supper with Grandpapa. 

But the Salvation housekeeper, who, since the death of 
Mrs. General Booth, has attended to the General's home 
needs, has often reason to complain that the very time for 
food is grudged, and the dinner table witnesses but little 
cessation of the ceaseless tide of dictation and counciilings. 

The General's confidential shorthand shares the same 
roof ready at any moment of the night or day to take 
down despatches or articles. For the General is not a 
very good sleeper, and, if unable to enlist the assistance 
of slumber, he will rise and work. 

Sarah Ann Toe ley, writing for the November number 
of the "Temple" magazine, gives the following interesting 
description of the General's personality: 

"No one can be in the presence of General Booth and 
note his fine figure and commanding bearing, the strongly 
marked face with the grey head and beard, without the 
consciousness of being in the presence of a man of wonder- 
ful capacity and power. The General's room at the Head- 
quarters in Queen Victoria Street is a plain small office 
with little to denote its historic importance; for there bril- 
liant campaigns have been organized and gigantic plans 
formulated. Prominent over the mantlepiece is a portrait 
of the late Mrs. Booth. In the centre of the room is the 
General's writing table, chair and couch. Tables for his sec- 
retaries are at the further end, and on the walls hang large 
maps of the various quarters of the globe. Pointing to 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



103 



the map of the world the General will say, 'That is our 
sphere of influence. The world for Christ, is our motto.' 
Another interesting picture in this room shows the wreck 
of the vessel on which two Salvation Army women were 
returning to New Zealand after attending the annual con- 
ference in London in 1894. It was chey who prayed with 
the passengers up to the last moment of the vessel sinking. 
One sister found a watery grave and the other a miracu- 
lous escape. 

4 'When one visits Headquarters one is sure to find the 
General in a chronic state of having finished one great 
campaign and about to start another. For example, in 
Whitsun week of this year, he had just completed a series 
of eleven mass meetings in Exeter Hall and Trafalgar 
Square, where to use his own language, he had had 'some 
of the biggest thieves in London and a murderess at the 
penitent-form,' and with scarce a day's respite after this 
work in hot summer weather the General started for a 
tour in Scandinavia, a country which he says has been one 
of the most favorable of foreign centres to the work of the 
Army. 

"The most notable feature of the General's character is 
his unexampled capacity for hard work. When he steps 
from the platform after an evening meeting he is not con- 
tent to leave the care of the penitents to his officers, but 
will himself go from one kneeling figure to another, 
exhorting and praying. When these exciting scenes are 
ended he will 'hook' his unfortunate secretary, and while 
changing his coat in the vestry begin to dictate an article 
for the press, and continue it as he drives in the cab or 
rides in the railway train to his home at Hadley Wood. 
Even that does not end his work, for the General drags his 
secretary upstairs to his bedroom, dictates while he 
undresses and so long as he remains awake. Should he lie 
awake in the night he calls for him again. It appears to 
be the General's rule never to allow a waking moment to 
be unoccupied. If 'sleep, balmy sleep' comes to him, 
well and good; if it does not, then he must be at work. 



104 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



*My husband has nearly killed two or three secretaries,' 
said Mrs. Booth jocularly, to an officer when he was about 
to enter upon his duties as private secretary to the 
General, 'and I hope he will not kill you.' The secretary 
survived the ordeal for one year, and lives to tell the tale 
in his office at Headquarters. 

"The following is a fair sample of the General's day 
when in London. He will rise at 6.30 a. in., unless he has 
been up during the night, when he may remain later in 
the morning. He then takes a cold bath, the one part of 
his toilet which he performs without a secretary or short- 
hand writer in attendance. If he has come off 'a great 
campaign' the night before, he may possibly indulge him- 
self with a cup of tea at this hour, not otherwise. He gets 
down to breakfast at 7.30, and after that goes through his 
correspondence and literary work, for he is a constant con- 
tributor to the Army publications. He will then come up 
to Headquarters, and every half hour will have its engage 
ment — the heads of departments coming in for instruc- 
tions, numberless interviews with all sorts and conditions 
of people, decisions to be made on agendas submitted to 
him, campaigns to be arranged for the home and for the 
foreign work ; possibly there may be a great campaign in 
India to be settled with the representatives from that 
country ; or it may be Australia which demands his atten- 
tion. He takes a brief time for luncheon in his office. 
The afternoon continues much in the same way as the 
morning, and every night as a rule he will address a large 
meeting. When the meeting is over he will, as we have 
said, carry his secretary with him on every stage of his 
journey home, and even into his bedroom. 

"I felt curious to know what was the diet of a man who 
performed such an unprecedented quantity of work, and 
was told that the General was the most abstemious of 
men. As one officer remarked, 'He seems to get through 
the world largely on bread and butter.' He abjures 
sweets of every kind — no cakes or puddings. He is an in- 
veterate drinker of soda water. Though not a vegetarian, 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



105 



he eats sparingly of meat, and his particular fancy is a 
good apple. The General attributes his health and vigor 
very largely to his frugality and simplicity of diet. 

"It needs not to be said that the General is one of the 
greatest travellers of modern times, and he invariably 
writes or dictates, whether in a railway train or on a 
steamer. He is an inveterate writer, and when not employed 
in public work never seems easy unless he has his stylo in 
hand, and he can write equally well sitting or standing. 
He has a wonderful knack for writing in the railway train ; 
he holds the pad in his hand and writes with the motion 
of the train. 

"When I asked one who had known General Booth 
intimately for many years what he considered the most 
distinguishing trait in the General's character, he replied, 
'The strong point in his character is sympathy; wherever 
he sees want or suffering his first question is, what is to be 
done, and it has been his life work to answer that question 
in a practical way. ' 

"Broadly speaking, the General will take any fish in his 
net for furthering the work of the Army. The story is 
told of a Christian brother who remonstrated with him for 
having accepted a donation of £100 from the Marquis of 
Queensberry, a professed agnostic, remarking that he 
'would not take the infidel's dirty money.' 'Oh,' said 
the General, 'my only regret about the matter is that it 
was not £1,000, and if the money is dirty, well then, we 
will wash it in the tears of the widows and orphans, and 
lay it on the altar of humanity/' When he was going to 
tne Cape a similar incident occurred. There had been 
some betting on board, and an inveterate old gambler had 
gained the sum of £27 10s The General did not indulge 
in a homily, but said to the man, 'Now the best use you 
can make of that money is to hand it over to me for the 
Salvation Army. ' 

"'Well,' replied the man, quite taken aback by the 
proposal, 'I don't mind if I do,' and straightway placed 
the money in General Booth's hands. 



106 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



"It bas ever been General Booth's aim to raise the 
dregs and scum of humanity whom the churches had 
been disposed to leave severely alone. Olive Schreiner 
has said: 'The only form of Christianity which is a living 
force i3 the Salvation Army.' 

"One might indeed fill a small volume with anecdotes 
connected with the marvellous manner in which General 
Booth has gained support from avowed antagonists and 
worldlings of every description, while the histories of those 
who nightly throng his penitent forms would make a 
startling romance in crime. We may question the pro- 
priety of a double-dyed reprobate being led to believe that 
he has instantaneous salvation, and of his being thrust 
forward to proclaim the way of salvation to others, but 
one must at least admit that to pluck such brands from 
the burning by any method is a service to the world at 
large.' ' 



CHAPTER XVIL 



THE GENERAL IN AMERICA. 

The visit of General Booth to America is fraught with 
momentous interest. It is the third time within a decade 
that he traverses the length and breadth of our land, not 
as a curious spectator, or cold critic, but as one who has 
gained his hundreds of thousands of souls, and who has 
been the means in (rod's hands of raising an army of des- 
perate crusaders throughout the world, multitudes of 
whom have never even seen his face. He comes to link 
hands with all the forces of righteousness, of temperance 
and of benevolence. His first prayer is that he may be of 
spiritual blessing. He comes also as an earnest student of 
the sociological problems which are engaging the anxious 
attention of our most eminent and patriotic citizens, as 
well as with a view to bringing within the reach of our 
masses the Gospel remedy which for fifty years he has 
been proclaiming to the world. 

He comes not as a theoretician. Already he is able, as 
the previous pages will have in a measure shown, to point 
to gratifying results, the duplication of which will assur- 
edly mean the solution of our pauper problem. He has 
raised up on our soil a fighting force consisting of Amer- 
ican citizens, led and officered by such. This in itself is a 
sufficient guarantee that the Salvation Army in America 
is not and never can be dominated by foreign influences. 
It cannot anywhere, since the very essence of the Salva- 
tion Army is to create in each country a national organ- 
ization, which shall work ceaselessly for the emancipation 
of its own nation from the thraldom of sin and misery, 
and which in so doing shall link hands in holy comrade- 
ship and universal brotherhood with the rest of the world. 

The experience gained elsewhere will be utilized here, 
but it will be adapted to the nation, to the constitution, 

107 



108 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



and to the requirements. Whether in its spiritual or social 
operations the Salvation Army in America has proved 
itself to be no feeble exotic. Here and there it may have 
flung its fertile seeds into adjoining fields, or scattered 
abroad some of its withered leaves But this is no sign 
of decay Rather is it an evidence of healthy growth. 
The advances of the past year make it impossible to doubt 
the same. 

Our veteran leader arrives in our midst to find a con 
secrated Army pursuing a prosperous course, loyal to the 
principles which have carried the banner of the Salvation 
Army to the remotest corners of the globe. It is these 
principles which have enabled it to outride each storm. 
They are founded on the teachings of the Hero of Calvary. 
They admit of unlimited expansion in the future. The 
Army in America is after all but in its infancy Unde- 
veloped possibilities lie before it! Our beloved General 
will help us to seize them! 

America will see the General for herself, She will 
claim him for her own. She will, with the srenerous fair- 
mindedness that has distinguished her pulpit, her press, 
her platform in the past, accord to him an interested 
hearing, to the Salvation Army an ample scope for the 
exercise of every gift and grace for the rescue of the lost. 

Yes ! She will welcome to her shores this modern Colum- 
bus, who has crossed and re-crossed so many times the 
ocean of human misery. She will be rewarded by sharing 
in his discovery of new realms regarded hitherto as un- 
reachable and deemed unconquerable. She will turn her 
peaceful weapons to the subjugation of the common foes 
of man She will reap to herself everlasting honors in the 
practical annexation of the rich continents of humanity, 
which have been hitherto abandoned to the desolating 
floods of sin and pauperism. She will plant with God's 
blessing the banner of the cross alongside the star- 
spangled standard on the citadels of human woe, and in 
time and throughout eternity she will earn the smile of her 
Creator and the gratitude of the nations of the world. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



109 



PL TRIBUTE. 

Hail t Prophet of the Poor ! Diseoverer 

Of that sad, melancholy No Man's Land, 

Where tears of widows, orphans, desolate, 

Pour in one huge Niagara of woe, 

And gather into lakes of sorrow, fathomless — 

Immeasurable waste of human grief ! 

Hail, Nolle Heart, that dares to seek to staunch 

The source of heart-ache by the I aim Divine 

Of -Calvary — who, passing boldly^ ly 

All earthly nostrums, steadfastly declares 

That, come what may, thy lot with Christ's is cast — 

That for humanity's vast gaping wounds, 

The wounds of Christ as solace sole exist ! 

Hail, Leader of our conquering hosts below, ' 

Who, passing the church-cared professor ly, 

Hast summoned every foil wer to thy side, 

To dive to lowest depths of lost mankind, 

And seek amid those water-caverns hid, 

The priceless pearls for whom Christ's Hood was shed ! 

Nor vain the quest ! Millions of costly gems 

Thy hand hath rescued from those realms of death, 

To stud the jeweled crown of Christ thy Lord ! 

Amid the countless hosts who fight beneath 

The Flag of Blood and Fire, none love thee more. 

Nor pledge more firmly to thy principles 

Than we, thy soldiers of America, 

Who follow thee through life— to death — and rise 

To hail thee in the Resurrection Morn ! 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH, 



I GENERAL'S FAVORITE SONGS. 



BY THE GENERAL. 

Tune— " Christ for me" B. M. 48. 

Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame, 

Send the fire! 
Thy blood bought gift to day we claim; 

Send the fire! 
Look down and see this waiting host, 
Give us tne promised Holy Ghost, 
We want another Pentecost, 

Send the fire! 

2 God of Elijah, hear our cry. 

Send the fire! 
He'll make us fit to live or die, 

Send the fire! 
To burn up every trace of sin, 
To bring the light and glory in, 
The revolution now begin, 

Send the fire! 

3 'Tis fire we want, for fire we plead, 

Send the fire! 
The fire will meet our every need, 

Send the fire! 
For strength to ever dc the right, 
For grace to conquer in the fight, 
For power to walk the world in white, 

Send the fire ! 

4 To make our weak hearts strong anil brave, 

Send the fire! 
To live a dying: world to save, 

Send the fire ! 
Oh, see me on Thy altar lay 
My life, my all, this very day, 
To crown the offering now we pray 

Send the fire! 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Ill 



BY CONSUL BOOTH TUCKER. 

Tune — ' ' Climbing up the golden stair." 

2 Oh, my heart is full of music and of gladness, 
As on wings of love and faith I upward fly ; 
Not a shadow-cloud my Saviour's face obscuring, 
While I'm climbing to my homestead in the sky. 

Chorus. 

Oh, I'm climbing up the golden stair to Grlory! 

Oh, I'm climbing with my golden crown before me! 

I'm climbing in the light, 

Tin climbing day and night; 
I'll shout with all my might when I get there. 
Oh, I'm climbing up the golden stair to Grlory! 
Oh, I'm climbing with my golden crown before me! 

I'm climbing in the light, 

I'm climbing day and night, 
I'm climbing up the golden stair. 

2 Every day it seems I want to love Him better, 

Every day it seems I want to serve Him more, 
Every day 1 strive to climb the ladder faster, 
Every effort brings me nearer Canaan's shore. 

3 Oh, the joy of getting others to climb with me! 

Lost, despairing, broken- hearted, all may come; 
Calvary love has made the stair a very wide one, 
Sinner, lay your burden down and hasten home. 



BY COMMANDANT HERBERT BOOTH. 

Tune— " Victory for me." B. J. 69, 9. 

To the front! the cry is ringing. 

To the front ! your place is there; 
In the conflict men are wanted, 

Men of hope and faith and prayer. 
Selfish ends shall claim no right 

From the battle's post to take us; 
Fear shall vanish in the fight, 

For triumphant God will make us. 

Chorus. 

No retreating, Hell defeating, shoulder to shoulder 
we stand; 




112 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Gfod looking down, with glory crowns our conquering 
band. 

Victory for me, through the blood of Christ my 
Saviour; 

Victory for me, through the precious blood. 

B To the front ! the fight is raging, 

Christ's own banner leads the way ; 
Eyery power and thought engaging, 

Might divine shall be our stay. 
We have heard the cry for help* 

From the dying millious 'round us, 
We've received the royal command 

From our dying Lord who found us. 

3 To the front ! no more delaying, 

Wounded spirits need thy care; 
To the front ! thy Lord obeying, 

Stoop to help the dying there. 
Broken hearts and blighted hopes, 

Slaves of sin and degradation, 
Wait for thee in love to bring 

Holy peace and liberation. 



Tune — "It was on the cross." B. J. 17, 3. 
When I survey the wondrous'Cross, 



On which the Prince of Glory died, 
All earthly gain I count but loss, 
And pour contempt on all my pride. 

2 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast 

Save in the death of Christ, my Gro<i; 
All the vain things that charm me most, 
I sacrifice them to His Blood. 

3 See! from His head, His hands, His feet, 

Sorrow and love flow mingled down; 
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, 
Or thorns compose so rich a crown? 

4 Were the whole realm of nature mine, 

That were a present far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 
Shall have my soul, my life, my all. 




GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



113 



Tune— " Who'll fight for the Lord everywhere?" 
B. M. 15. 

~ Who'll fight for the Lord everywhere 
t) Till we march by the river of light, 
Where the Lamb leads His hosts free from care, 
All robed in their garments of white? 

Chorus. 

Everywhere, who'll fight for the Lord everywhere? 

2 Oh, think of the fiends everywhere, 

Who on man's ruined nature have trod, 
Of the curses that breathe on the air. 
From souls wandering far from their God ! 

3 O Saviour lead me everywhere, 

Till each sin-burdened soul knows Thy rest, 
Till the prey from the mighty we tear, 
And our country with Thy peace is blest! 

4 I'll fight for Thee everywhere, 

For the terrible need I can see, 
Many dying in sin everywhere, 
My Jesus alone can set free. 



Tune— "Calcutta." B. J. 29, 2. 

/* O, Thou God of every nation, 
D We now for Thy blessing call ! 
Fit us for full consecration, 
Let the fire of Heaven fall; 
Bless our Army! With Thy power baptize us all. 

2 Fill us with Thy Holy Spirit, 

Make our soldiers white as snow ; 
Save the world through Jesus' merit, 
Satan's kingdom overthrow: 
Bless our Army ! Send us where we ought to go ! 

3 Give us all more holy living, 

Fill us with abundant power; 
Give the Army more thanksgiving 
Greater victories every hour. 
Bless our Army! Be our rock, our shield, our tower. 



114 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



4 Bless our General, bless our leaders, 
Bless our officers as well! 
Bless Headquarters, bless our soldiers; 
Bless the foes of sin and Hell! 
Bless our Array! We will all Thy goodness telL 



Tune — "Cleansing for me." B J. 45, 2. ■ 

n Lord, through the blood of the Lamb that was 
• slain, 

Cleansing for me; 
From all the guilt of my sins now I claim 

Cleansing from Thee. 
Sinful and black though the past may have been, 
Many the crushing defeats I have seen, 
Yet on Thy promise, O Lord, now I lean, 

Cleansing for me. 

% From all the sins over which I have wept, 

Cleansing for me; 
Far, far away, by the blood currenb swept, 

Cleansing for me. 
Jesus, Thy promise [ dare to believe, 
And as I come Thou dost just now receive 
That over sin I may never more grieve, 
Cleansing for me. 

3 From all the care of what men think or say, 

Cleansing for me; 
From ever fearing to speak, sing or pray, 

Cleansing for me. 
Lord, in Thy love and Thy power make me strong, 
That all may know that to Thee I belong; 
When I am tempted let this be my song — 

Cleansing for me. 

4 From all the doubts that have filled me with 

gloom, 

Cleansing for me; 
From all the fears that would point me to doom, 

Cleansing for me. 
Jesus, although I may not understand, 
In childlike faith I put forth my hand, 
And through Thy word and Thy grace I shall stand 

Cleansed by Thee. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



115 



Tune— ''Dear Jesus, I long." B. J. 56. S. M., I., 19£ 

8 Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole, 
I want Thee forever to live in my soul ; 
Break down every idol, cast out every foe, 
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Chorus. 

Whiter than snow ; yes, whiter than snow, 
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 

2 Lord Jesus : let nothing unholy remain, 
Apply Thine own blood and remove every stain; 
To get this blest washing I all things forego, 
Now wash me and 1 shall be whiter than snow. 

3 Lord Jesus, come down from Thy throne in the 

skies, 

And help me to make a complete sacrifice; 

I give up myself and whatever I know, 

Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 

4 Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat, 
I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet; 

By faith for my cleansing I see Thy blood flow, 
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 



Tune— "Oh, for a thousand tongues." B. J. 169, 2. 

1 Give me a'heart to praise my God — 
J A heart from sin set free: 

A heart that always feels the blood 
So freely spilt for me! 

2 A heart resigned, submissive, meek 

My great Redeemer's throne, 
Where only Christ is heard to speak, 
Where Jesus reigns alone. 

3 A humble, lowly, contrite heart, 

Believing, true and clean; 
Which neither life nor death can part 
Prom Him that dwells within. 

4 A heart in every thought renewed, 

And full of love divine; 
Perfect and right and pure and good, 
A copy, Lord, of Thine! 



lib 



GEN Eli AL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Tune— '"Stella." B. J. 25. 8s. 

1 A Grive toe the faith that jesus had, 
L\J The faith that can great mountains inove, 
That makes the mournful spirit glad, 

The saving faith that works by love; 
The faith for which the saints have striven, 
The faith that pulls the fire from Heaven. 

2 G-ive me the faith that gets the power, 

That stubborn devils dare not turn, 
That lion teeth cannot devour, 

That furnace fires can never burn; 
That never fears the tyrant's frown, 
That wins and wears the martyr's crown. 

3 Grive me the faith that dare do right, 

That keeps the weakest brave and strong, 
That will for Jesus nobly fight, 

That turns life's sorrows into song; 
That passes through the fiery test, 
That lives and gives and does its best. 



11 



Tune— "Sweet rest in Heaven," B. J. 174, 

Come, with me visit Calv'ry, 

Where my Redeemer died ; 
His blood it fills the fountain, 

'Tis deep, 'tis full, 'tis wide; 
He died from sin to sever 

My heart and life complete? 
He saves and keeps forever 

Those lying at His feet. 

Chorus. 

To the uttermost He saves, 
I will now believe, and His love receive, 
To the uttermost He saves. 

I will surrender fully 

And do my Saviour's will; 
He shall now make me holy 

And with Himself me fill. 
He's saving, I'm believing, 

This blessing I now claim; 
His spirit I'm receiving, 

My heart is in a flame. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



8 I've wondrous peace through trusting, 

A well of joy within; 
The rest is everlasting, 

Each day fresh triumphs win. 
He gives me heavenly measure, 

Pressed down and running o'er; 
Oh, wh? t a priceless treasure, 

Grlory forever more! 

Tune — "Come, comrades dear. " B. M. 9. 

1 <•) Come, Jesus, Lord, with holy fire 
lw Come, and my quickened heart inspire, 
Cleansed in Thy precious blood. 
Now to my soul Thyself reveal, 
Thy mighty working let me feel, 
Since I am born of God. 

2 Let nothing now my heart divide, 
Since with Thee I am crucified, 

And live to Grod in Thee 
Dead to the world and all its toys, 
Its idle pomp and fading joys, 

Jesus, my glory be ! 

3 Me with a quench less thirst inspire, 
A longing, infinite desire, 

And fill my craving heart; 
Less than Thyself oh, do not give, 
In might Thyself within me live, 

Come all Thou hast and art. 

4 My will be swallowed up in Thee, 
Light in Thy light still may I see 

In Thine unclouded face; 
Called the full strength of trust to prove, 
Let ail my quickened heart be love — 
My spotless life be praise! 

Tune— "Onward. Christian Soldiers!" 
Strike, oh, strike for victory! 

Soldiers of the Lord! 
Buckling on the armor, 
Trusting in His word; 
Lift His royal banner, 

High above the world; 
Satan from his stronghold 
Shall be hurled. 



13 



118 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



2 Strike, oh, strike for victory! 

Soldiers of the Cross! 
Sacrificing pleasure, 

Glorying in loss! 
Bind the helmet stronger, 

Tighter grasp the sword, 
Conquering and to conquer, 

Battle for the Lord. 

3 Hand to hand united, 

Heart to heart as one, 
Let us still keep marching 

Till the battle's won; 
Ever pressing onward 

'Mid the battle strife, 
Till we gain the Kingdom — 

Everlasting life. 



Tune— "God be with you." B. J. 296, 3. 

MGod be with you till we meet again! 
By His counsel guide uphold you, 
With His sheep securely fold you; 
God be with you till we meet again! 

Chorus. 

Till we meet! till we meet! Till we meet at Jesus' 

feet; 

Till we meet! till we meet! God be with you till we 
meet again! 

2 God be with you till we meet again ! 
'Neath His wings securely hide you, 
Daily manna still provide you; 
God be with you till we meet again! 

3 God be with you till we meet again! 
When life's perils thick confront you, 
Put His loving arms around you; 
God be with you till we meet again! 

4 God be with you till we meet again! 
Keep love's banner floating o'er you, 
Smite death's threatening wave before you; 
God be with you till we meet again! 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



119 



| £ Nearer, my God, to Thee! nearer to Thee! 

10 E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me, 
Still all my song shall be- 
Nearer, my God, to Thee! 
Nearer to Thee! 

2 Though like a wanderer, the sun gone down, 
Darkness be over me, my rest a stone, 

Yet in my dreams I'll be, 
Nearer my God to Thee, 
Nearer to Thee ! 

3 Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest 
Now Thee alone I seek; give what is best! 
This all my prayer shall be — 

More love, Christ, to Thee, 
More love to Thee ! 



Tune — ' 'We're traveling home." B. M. 7. 
We're traveling home to Heaven above, 



Will you go? 
To sing the Saviour's dying love, 

Will you go? 
Millions have reached that blissful shore, 
Their trials and their labors o'er, 
And yet there's room for millions more. 
Will you go? 

2 We're going to see the Bleeding Lamb, 

Will you go? 
In rapturous songs to praise His name, 

Will you go? 
Our sun will then no more go down, 
Our moon no more will be withdrawn. 
Our days of mourning ever gone, 

Will you go? 

3 The way to Heaven is straight and plain, 

Will you go? 
Repent, believe, be born again, 
Will you go? 

The Saviour cries aloud to thee, 
" Take up thy cross and fellow Me, 
And thou shalfc My salvation see," 
Will you go? 




GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



4 Oh, could I hear some sinner say, 

"I will go; 
I'll start this moment, clear the way, 

Let me go; 
My old companions, fare you well, 
I will not go with you to Hell, 

1 mean with Jesus Christ to dwell, 

Let me go." 

une— "Just as I am." B. J. 128. S. M. I , 7s. L. M. 

y Just as I am, without one plea, 
i But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come! 

2 Just as I am — and waiting not 

To rid my soul of one dark spot— . 
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each blot, 
Lamb of Grod ; I come! 

3 Just as I am— though tossed about 
With many a conflict, many a doubt, 
Fightings within and fears without 

Lamb of Grod, I come! 

4 Just as I am — poor, wretched, blind, 
Sight, riches, healing of the mind, 
Yea, all I need in Thee to find 

O Lamb of Grod, I come! 

5 Just as I am— Thou wilt receive, 
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, 
Because in Thee I dare believe, 

Lamb of Grod. I come! 

6 Just as I am — Thy love I own, 
Has broken every barrier down. 
Now I'll be Thine, yea, Thine alone, 

O Lamb of God. I come' 



Tunes— -"Stella, Eaton, Madrid, Saginaw" 

8 Jesus, Saviour, Christ divine, 
When shall I k now and feel Thee mine. 

Without a doubt or fear? 
With anxious, longing thirst I come, 
To beg Thee make my heart Thy home, 
And keep me holy here. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



BY THE GENERAL. 

2 What is there that I will not give 
To have Thee ever with me live 

A conquering Christ within? 
My life, my all this blessed day 
Down at Thy precious feet 1 lay 

To be redeemed from sin. 

3 O God of Pentecostal fame, 

Can I not have that living flame, 

Burning where'er I go? 
From sin and self and shame set free, 
Can I not lead lost souls to Thee, 

And conquer every foe? 

4 I can, I do just now believe, 

I do the heavenly grace receive, 

The Spirit makes me clean. 
Christ takes the whole of my poor heart, 
No chains shall ever from me part 

My Lord who reigns supreme. 



BY THE GENERAL. 

Tune— "My Jesus, I love Thee " 

JQ Oh, boundless salvation! deep ocean of love! 

1 fj Oh, fulness of mercy, Christ brought from 

above ; 

The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free, 
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me. 

Chorus 

The heavenly gales are blowing. , 
The cleansing sea is flowing. 
Beneath its waves I'm going, 
Hallelujah, praise the Lord! 

2 My sins they are many, their stains are so deep 
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep ; 
But useless is weeping, thou great crimson sea 
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



3 Oh, ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood 
On the brink of thy wonderful, life-giving flood. 
Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea, 
I will not go back till it rolls over me. 

4 The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave, 
I hear the loud call of "The Mighty to save;" 

My faith's growing bolder — delivered I'll be — 
I plunge meath the waters — they roll over me. 

5 My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong, 
They bind my poor soul, and they force me to 

wrong; 

Beneath Thy blest billows deliverance see; 
Oh, come, mighty ocean, and roll over me. 

6 Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with 



My life has been joyless and useless for years; 
I fee) something better most surely would be. 
If once Thy pure waters would roll over me. 

7 And now. hallelujah: the rest of my days 
Shall gladly be spent in promoting His praise, 
Who opened His bosom to pour out this sea 
Of boundless salvation for you and for me. 



Tune— '"Behold the Lamb of God!" B. J. 277, 2. 
>A Behold, behold the Lamb of God, 



J On the Cross ; 

For us He shed His precious blood 

On the Cross ; 
Oh, hear His all important cry, 
"Why perish, blood- bought sinner— why?'' 
Draw near and see your Saviour die 
On the Cross. 

2 Come, sinners, see Him lifted up, 

On the Cross ; 
He drinks for you the bitter cup, 

On the Cross: 
The rocks do rend, the mountains quake, 
While Jesus doth salvation make — 
While Jesus suffers for our sake, 

On the Cross. 



fears; 




GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



123 



3 And now the mighty deed is done 

On the Cross; 
The battle's fought the victory's won, 

On the Cross; 
To Heaven He tarns His dying eyes, 
" 'Tis finished," now the Conqueror cries, 
Then bows His sacred head and dies, 

On the Cross. 

4 Where'er I go I'll tell the story 

Of the Cross; 
In nothing else my soul shall glory, 

Save the Cross; 
Yes, this my constant theme shall be, 
Through time and in eternity, 
That Jesus tasted death for me, 

0# the Cross. 



4T)-| All hail the power of Jesus' name! 
^± Let angels prostrate fall; 
Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown Him Lord of all. 

2 Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget 

The wormwood and the gall; 
Go spread your trophies at His feet 
And crown Him Lord of all. 

3 Crown Him ye soldiers of our God, 

And every sinner call; 
Make known the power of Jesus' blood, 
And crown Him Lord of all. 

4 Oh that with yonder sacred throng 

We at His feet may fall; 
Join in the everlasting song, 
And crown Him Lord of alL 



BY THE GENERAL. 

Tune— "My Jesus, I Love Thee." 

O (T) Oh, boundless salvation! deep ocean of love! 
Oh, fulness of mercy Christ brought from 
above 

The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free, 
Now flowing for all men, come roll over me! 



124 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



Chorus. 

The heavenly erales are blowing, 
The cleansing sea is flowing, 
Beneath its waves I'm going, 
Hallelujah, praise the Lord! 

2 My sins are so many, their stains are so deep, 
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep; 
But useless is weeping, Thou great crimson sea, 
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me. 

3 O ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood 

On the brink of Thy wonderful life giving flood; . 
Once more I have reached this soul cleansing sea 
I will not go back till it rolls over me. 

4 The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave, 
I hear the loud call of ' k The Mighty to save;" 
My faith's growing bolder — delivered I'll be— 

I plunge 'neath the waters — they roll over me. 

5 My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong 
They bind my poor soul, and they force me to 

wrong; 

Beneath Thy blest billows deliverance I see; 
Oh, come, mighty ocean, and roll over me. 

6 Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with 

fears ; 

My life has been joyless and useless for years; 
I feel something better most surely would be, 
If once Thy pure waters would roll over me. 

7 And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days 
Shall gladly be spent in promoting His praise, 
Who opened His bosom to pour out this sea 
Of boundless salvation for you and for me. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



125 



FOUR WAYS OF HELPING THE SALVATION ARMY. 



I. THROUGH THE ffUXILISRY LEAGUE, 

If you are willing to pray for us, speak a good word 
for us on occasion and help us financially, by a gift 
of $5 per annum, write to Brigadier Alice Lewis : Aux- 
iliary Secretary, 122 West Fourteenth Street. Aux- 
iliaries receive a pass, which admits to a reserved seat 
at most great meetings, our magazine, the 4 Harbor 
Lights/' month by month, and pamphlets used from 
time to time describing our work. The League com- 
prises members of all denominations and very many 
ministers. 

a. THROUGH THE MERCY-BOXES. 

These are tasteful little boxes, which our friends are 
asked to take and place upon their dinner tables, and 
into which they are expected to drop at least one cent 
a week. An agent collects these boxes every quarter, 
and their contents go to help our Social Fund. Will 
you write for one to Mrs. Colonel Higgins, 122 W. 14th 
Street, New York. 

3. COLONIZATION LOffN. 

Friends desirous to assist the Colonization Scheme, 
should communicate with Commander Booth-Tucker, 
stating the amount, the length of time, and the inter- 
est they desire. 

BY BEQUEST. 

The following is a form of bequest: 

I give, devise and bequeath unto Frederick de 
Lautour Booth Tucker, Commander of the Salvation 
Army forces in the United States of America for the 
time being, or to his successor that may be appointed 
by the General for the time being of the Salvation 

Army forces of the world, $ or 

property, for his use absolutely and for ever, to be 
used on behalf of and in support of the said Salvation 
Army Work. Signed 



126 GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH 



B0©KS. 

In the undermentioned list are a few of the books 
and periodicals published by the Salvation Army, and 
may be had from the Trade Department, 1 22 W. 14-th 
Street, New York. 

WORKS BY THE GENERAL: 

In Darkest England and the Way Out. 

Part I. In Darkest England. The Darkness — The Submerged 
Tent h— The Homeless— The "Out of Works"— On the Verge of the 
Ahyss— Tl: e Vicious— The Criminals— The Children of the Lost — Is 
There No Help ? 

Part II. Deliverance. A Stupendous Undertaking — To the Res- 
cue!— The City Colony— To the Country— The Farm Colony — New 
Britain— The Colony Over the Sea — More Crusades— Help in General 
-—Can It be Done, and How ?— A Practical Conclusion. 

226 Pages. Paper, usual price, 5oc, now 25c. 
Board Cloth, usual price, $1.00 and $1.50, now 50c. and $1.00 
We have specially reduced the price of Darkest, England so as to 
give everyone interested an opportunity of securing this valuable 
work. 

The Training of Children, or How to Make the Children into Saints 
and Sol iWs of Jesus Christ .. Limp Cloth, 40c. Board Cloth, 75c 
Salvation Soldiery. 

A series of Addresses and Papers descriptive of the characteristics 
of God's best Soldiers. Eight Illustrations. Paper, 30c. Cloth, 55c. 
The General's Letters : 

Beinjr a reprint, of t he General's Weekly Letters in the War Cry of 
1885, together with life-like Portraits of the Writer. 

Paper, 30c. Cloth, 55c 

WORKS OF THE LATE MRS. GENERAL BOOTH: 

Practical Religion. 

Contents : Compel Them to Come In, Strong Drink versus Chris- 
tianity, Heart Backsliding, Female Ministry, ttie Training of Chil- 
dren, Dealing with Anxious Souls, Wordly Amusements and Chris- 
tianity .. Paper, 30c. Cloth, 55c. 

Life and Death. 

A series of Addresses, mainly to the .Unconverted, on the follow- 
ing: "The New Birth,'" ''Mercy and Judgment," "Halting Bet ween 
Two Opinions," "A True and False Faith," "Sowing and Reapinir," 
"The Prodigal Son," "Quench Not the Spirit." "Save Thyself," "The 
Day of His Wrath," "Religious Indifference," "Need of Atonement," 
"A True and a False Peace," "What Is The Salvation Army ?" 

Paper, 30c. Cloth, 55c. 

Popular Christianity. 

Being a Series of Lectures delivered in Princess Hall, Piccadilly, 
on the following subjects : "The Christs of t he Nineteenth Cent ury 
Compared wit h the Christ of God," "A Mock Salvation and a Real 
Deli verance from Sin," "Sham Compassion and the Dying Love of 
Christ," "Popular Christianity : Its Cowardly Servn e versus the 
Real Warfare," "The Sham of Judgment in Contrast with the Great 
White Throne," "Notes of Three Addresses on Household Gods," 
"The Salvation Army Following Christ." 

203 Pau'es. Paper, 40c. Cloth, 75c. 
The Salvation Army in Relation to the Church and State. 

Suhjecis— The Salvation Army: Its Reial son to the State, to the 
Church, to Business Principles; Its Future; Answers to the Main 
Points of Criticism on the So-called "Secret Book." 

Paper, 25c. Cloth, 40c. 



GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH. 



127 



Aggressive Christianity. 

Contents: Aggressive Christianity, A Pure Gospel, Adaptation of 
Measures, Assurance of Salvation, How Christ Transcends the Law, 
The Fruits of Union with Christ, Filled with the Spirit, The World's 

Neeil, The Hoiy Ghost Paper, 30c. Cloth, 55c. 

Godliness. 

Contents: Saving Faith, Charity, Charity and Rebuke, Charity 
and Conflict, Charity and Loneliness, Conditions of Effectual Prayer, 
The Perfect Heart, How to Work for God with Success, Enthusiasm 
and Full Salvation, Repentance, Address on Holiness, Hindrances to 
Holiness. Paper, 30c. Cloth, 55c. 

THE LIFE OF HRS. BOOTH, by Commander Booth-Tucker. 

In two volumes. This is, wit hout doubt, one of the most interest- 
ing and inspiring books t hat has ever been written. Wh want agents 
in every city in the United States. Students and others will find it a 
ready seller. A minister, who was acting as agent, sold twenty-five 
copies in two weeks. Send for terms. Net Price, $3.50 

EDERSHEIM S LIFE OF CHRIST. 

In two volumes. Published at $4.00. This is a splendid work, and 
considered by many to be the best work on the Messiah ever written. 

Our Price, $2.00. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 
Red=Hot Library : 

Brother Francis 
Mrs. Booth's Last Days . . 
George Fox 
Helps to Holiness .. 
David St oner 

Red Flowers of Martyrdom 
T wen ty=one Years' Salvation War Paper. 30c. Cloth, SSc. 



The Salvation Navvy 14 2Sc. " sOc. 

Finney's Lectures on Revivals .. " SSc. 

Finney's Theological Lectures .. 44 SSc. 

Finney's Lectures to Professing Christians 44 55c. 

Life of Finney 44 SSc. 

Billy Bray, the King's Son 41 *Oc. 

Drum Taps .. kk 2Sc. 14 40c. 



PAMPHLETS RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY COMMANDER BOOTH- 
TUCKER : 

Light on Questions that Perplex Some People, 

Sc., or $3. SO per hundred. 

All About the Salvation Army .. 
Opinions of Eminent Persons on the 
Work of the Salvation Army at 

Home and Abroad .. .. Sc., or $2.00 per hundred. 

Back to the Land .. 44 44 

Pauper Policy .. .. 4 44 44 

All of these contain just what you and your friends want to 
know about the Salvation Army. 

WffR CRY .. Per copy, Sc. Per year, $2.00 



HftRBOR LIGHTS (Monthly 

Magazine) .. .. " Sc. 44 SOc. 

YOUNG SOLDIER. . .. 44 lc. 44 SOc. 

STRID9ROPET .... 44 3c. 44 $1,50 

KRIEGSRUF .. ?• 3c. 44 SOc, 



Per Volume : 
Paper, 25c. Cloth, 40c. 
Post paid. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction, . . . . . 

1.— Early Days of General Booth, 
II.— General Booth as an Evangelist, . 
HI — The Mother of the Salvation Army, . 
IV.— The Christian Mission, . . . . 

V —The Salvation Army 

VI —Stormy Days — Letters from Eminent 
Persons, 

VII —The Hallelujah Lasses, 

VIII —The Salvation Army in America, 

IX — Thk Salvation Army in Many Lands, 
X —Army Literature, ..... 
XL— General Booth's Family . 
XII —The Poor Man's Friend, 
XIII. — General Booth as an Organizer, . 
XIV —The General as a Preacher, 
XV.— The General as a Writer, 
XVI —The General at Home, 
XVII.— The General in America, 

A Tribute 

The General's Favorite Songs, . 



PAGE 

iii 

7 

12 
15 
21 
26 

32 
40 
48 
58 
69 
71 
81 
90 



101 
107 
109 
111 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of General Booth. 
Portrait of Mrs. General Booth. 
The General in 1862. 
The General in 1867. 



